To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of the Taliban who are (i) reconcilable and (ii) ideological. (101660)

There is a small core of the Taliban movement, including most of the senior leadership, who have made it clear they have no intention of reconciling themselves to the Government of President Karzai. We assess that many of those we have faced are locally recruited and they could be persuaded to abandon violence if offered the prospect of better political, social and economic prospects.