Most violent Afghan province's governor sees talks

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. and British advance into Taliban-held parts of Afghanistan's most violent province is helping persuade insurgent fighters to negotiate, the province's governor said on Thursday.

Helmand province, which produces most of the world's opium and where vast swathes were under Taliban control, has been the scene since July of the biggest operations of the 8-year-old war, with U.S. Marines and British forces seizing Taliban-held areas.

The province's governor, Gulab Mangal, told Reuters the military advances had paved the way for new efforts to reach out to fighters for peace talks.

"We have intensified our efforts for months so that we can bring over some groups of the insurgents to the government side," Mangal told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"Contacts have been made and we will continue them in the future... And we are hopeful of reaching to a specific result in the near future."

President Hamid Karzai made reaching out to insurgents a major theme of his election campaign in the run-up to last month's presidential election. Preliminary results show him leading although possibly facing a second round run-off.

Washington has also said it is open to talks to persuade some fighters to switch sides, part of the new strategy for the region launched by President Barack Obama that also included the new Marines sent for the Helmand operation.

The Taliban, ousted from power in 2001, have made a strong comeback in the last three years, extending the scale and scope of their insurgency across the south and east to parts of the north and west.