Hamid Karzai said he has called for mediated talks with the Taliban [EPA]

Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, a senior British commander in Afghanistan, has said that a decisive military victory in the country may be impossible.

He has also pressed for a deal to be struck with the Taliban.

General David McKernan, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, has voiced similar sentiments, saying that any solution to the conflict must be political.

On Tuesday, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, said that he had repeatedly asked King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to mediate in talks with the Taliban and had called on Mullah Omar, the fugitive Taliban leader, to return to Afghanistan and make peace.

For their part, the Taliban have maintained their demand that there be a full withdrawal of foreign troops from the country and insist that they will not recognise the current government.

Inside Story asks if the Taliban are ready to engage in negotiations over a political settlement to the conflict, and if so, who they will negotiate with.

Watch part one of this episode.

Watch part two of this episode.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Sunday, October 05, 2008, at 1730GMT.