About 700 tribal elders, politicians and other influential people from Afghanistan and Pakistan will meet August 1 for a traditional "jirga" on the Taliban insurgency, the Afghan president said Friday.

An Afghan delegation would travel to Pakistan later this month for more talks on the joint "peace jirga," Hamid Karzai said in a statement after meeting Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao.

"The people of Afghanistan want peace and stability in the area," the president said, stressing the need for cooperation because "terrorism is affecting all of us."

Sherpao said Thursday, after a round of talks about the long-planned gathering, that the two sides were working on the agenda for the meeting, the first of its kind between the neighbours.

The jirga, a tradition in Afghanistan, is intended to involve local people more closely in efforts to end the Taliban insurgency, which has grown steadily since the extremist movement was driven from government in late 2001.

Karzai and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf agreed to the meeting during talks with US President George W. Bush in September.

Relations between Karzai and Musharraf have cooled as the insurgency has dragged on, with each accusing the other of not doing enough to curb extremist violence growing on both sides of the border.