London: Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday he's willing to consider reopening negotiations with the Taliban in his country, a statement that came amid a flurry of criticism that some elements within Pakistan remain sympathetic to the extremist group.
Zardari told The Associated Press that his country had never closed the door to talks with the Taliban.
"We never closed the dialogue," Zardari told the AP, skirting the question of when talks could actually resume.
"We had an agreement, which they broke. (Talks will resume) whenever they feel we're strong enough and they realize they can't win, because they won't win. It will be a painful difficult task, but defeat is not an option."
Last year, the Pakistani government struck a deal with the Taliban in the Swat Valley that gave them effective control over the region. The militants did not abide by the agreement and moved into another region, prompting an all-out offensive by the Pakistani army. Some 2,500 Pakistani security forces have been killed.
Although some believe the only way to win the war will be to talk to extremists, the United States and Pakistan's other Western allies have been urging the country to continue fighting the Pakistani Taliban, not talk to them.
The movement has been behind dozens of bloody attacks inside Pakistan.
The group, which is loosely based in the tribal regions close to the Afghan border, was involved in the failed Times Square car bombing and the suicide attack on a CIA base in December in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA employees. It has links with al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban fighting across the border in Afghanistan.
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