American government officials have told a delegation from the Taleban faction in Afghanistan that the United States would support plans to construct of an oil pipeline across Afghanistan if the country were at peace.

The State Department said after a meeting in Washington that the pipeline would be an excellent way of helping to rebuild Afghanistan, but that such a project could not go ahead without a political settlement between the country's warring factions.

The planned pipeline would carry oil from the massive new fields of Central Asia to markets in Pakistan and for further export through Karachi.

The United States, which does not to recognise Taleban as Afghanistan's government, also pressed the delegation to cut opium production, improve human rights, particularly for women, and to co-operate with the United Nations in its efforts to bring peace to the country.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service