Peshawar, April 23:

Pakistan’s new government has drafted a peace agreement with Taliban militants in its troubled tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials and a rebel spokesman said today.

The government launched talks with the Islamist rebels soon after winning elections in February, amid concerns that the military-orientated tactics of President Pervez Musharraf were spawning more violence.

The aim is to transform a month-long lull in a wave of suicide bombings into a permanent peace with the rebels, who have fought the government since Islamabad joined the US-led “war on terror” in 2001.

“Work is in progress swiftly on a new peace agreement with the Taliban Movement of Pakistan,” a senior security official told AFP, adding that “indirect negotiations” through tribal elders were ongoing.

“The draft agreement contains clauses under which both sides will not take armed action against each other. Military will be withdrawn from certain areas, attacks on security forces

will be stopped by militants,” the official said.

The chief spokesman for the country’s umbrella militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban (Taliban Movement) Pakistan, Maulvi Omar, confirmed to AFP by telephone that “our negotiations with government are going on.” “There is significant positive development, we have accepted most of eachothers’ demands. In next few days we hope that a positive outcome is achieved,” Omar said.