Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar yesterday, calling on insurgents to lay down their arms andlocalstojointhe government security forces.

Karzai rarely travels to the provinces. The southern region of Kandahar is the heartland of the nine-year Taliban insurgency and one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan, where record numbers ofWestern troops are being killed.

Thousands of Nato and Afghan troops are fighting to control Kandahar city in Operation Dragon Strike — considered crucial to a US strategy hoping to beat back the Taliban and strengthen Karzai's government.

Karzai flew by Nato helicopter to the Arghanab district headquarters with US General David Petraeus, the commander of 152,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, US ambassador Karl Eikenberry, cabinet ministers and the Kandahar governor.

He was briefed by Afghan and US generals on the operation, then addressedhundreds of local elders.

"Once again, and from Arghandab, I call on the Taliban to stop fighting, to stop killing their brothers and elders," Karzai told the crowd.

Karzai said young men who fell in with the Taliban should be nurtured by their families and brought back into the fold, rather than disowned.

"Taliban are the sons of this land. When children go astray, no one throws their children away butinsteadtriesto take care of them, treat them and bring them to the right path,” he said.

In Kabul on Thursday, Karzai inaugurated a peace council charged with brokering an end to the war amid mounting reports of secret peace talks between Kabul andTaliban.

TheTaliban have said publicly they will not enter into dialogue with the government until all US-led foreign troops leave the country.