Pakistan on Sunday welcomed "reconciliation" talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Qatar.
An eight-member delegation of the Taliban and the Afghan High Peace Council sat face-to-face in Doha for the second day to share proposals for a solution to problems in the war-torn country, Xinhua news agency reported.
"We support any formal or informal talks that lead to reconciliation in Afghanistan," Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry told reporters.
"Pakistan backs every gathering aimed at achieving the goal of peace in Afghanistan," he said.
However, a Taliban spokesman said their participation in the Qatar conference, organised by Canada-based Pugwash, "should not be misconstrued as peace or negotiation talks".
The Nova Scotia, Canada-based Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organisation that works toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats.
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A 20-member delegation from Afghanistan, including High Peace Council spokesman Maulvi Shehzada Shahid and senior member Attaulah Ludin, is attending the meeting after the Taliban refused to join the intra-Afghan dialogue.
A two-member team of Hizb-e-Islami (Hekmatyar), the second largest resistance movement in Afghanistan, was also present during the Qatar talks.
The official Qatar News Agency described the meeting as reconciliatory.
"The dialogue will be through open discussions about Afghan reconciliation between all parties in Afghanistan," the agency reported.
It is the third time that the Taliban group is attending a conference along with the representatives of the Afghan government.
The Taliban political council's members had attended similar meetings in France and Japan but they did not hold direct talks with the government.