Britain's commander in Afghanistan has said the war against the Taliban cannot be won, the Sunday Times reported.

It quoted Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith as saying in an interview that if the Taliban were willing to talk, then that might be "precisely the sort of progress" needed to end the insurgency.

"We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army," he said.

He said his forces had "taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008" but that troops may well leave Afghanistan with there still being a low level of insurgency.

Nato commanders and diplomats have been saying for some time that the Taliban insurgency cannot be defeated by military means alone and that negotiations with the militants will ultimately be needed to bring an end to the conflict.

"If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this," Carleton-Smith said. "That shouldn't make people uncomfortable."

Violence in Afghanistan has increased to its worst level since 2001, when US-led forces overthrew the ruling Taliban following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

A senior Taliban commander on Friday rejected reconciliation with what he called the "puppet" Afghan government.

Mullah Brother, who served as a top military commander while the Taliban were in power, repeated the Taliban's war aim of fighting till the more than 70,000 US and Nato troops were driven from the country.

He said the insurgents would not negotiate while there were still foreign troops on Afghan soil.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said last week he had asked the king of Saudi Arabia to mediate in talks with the insurgents and called on Taliban leader Mullah Omar to return to his homeland and to make peace. - Reuters