ISLAMABAD - President Hamid Karzai on Friday underlined the need for equitable and deeper collaboration between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A recent Afghan-Iran-Pakistan summit in Islamabad offered yet another opportunity to pursue bilateral dialogue, Karzai said in a letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

According to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency, he once again characterized Afghanistan and Pakistan as twins, saying that it was important for the neighbors to enhance their bilateral cooperation.
Karzai asserted his strong sense of a shared determination to ensure peace, security and prosperity for both countries. His government would do all it could to realize the mutual commitments made in Islamabad, he wrote.

Late on Thursday, Gilani said he had appealed to insurgents to join the reconciliation process imitated by the Afghan government in response to President Karzai's request for help.

"I appealed to all factions of Taliban to support the president in his endeavors to bring about peace through reconciliation in Afghanistan," Yusuf Raza Gilani was quoted as saying in a statement from the Pakistan embassy in Kabul

At a meeting with UK's Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell, Gilani said his country remained committed to peace in the region.

Praising Gilani's bold initiative to support the Afghan peace process, Mitchell said the British government was looking forward to the premier's visit to the UK in May. (Pajhwok)