The Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, is said to be very angry over the capture of the Taliban's number two official in Pakistan.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured in Pakistan last month, with the arrest embarrassing President Karzai due to recent discussions he had been having with Baradar about a peace treaty.

According to Afghan insiders, Karzai thought the capture, which had been assisted by US intelligence, could compromise ongoing talks at a three-day peace jirga next month.

The detention of Baradar, only second in the Taliban to one-eyed Mullah Mohammed Omar, has raised the question of whether the US really wants peace discussions with leaders who harboured the terrorists involved in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Baradar was nabbed last month in the Pakistan port city of Karachi as part of a crackdown in which other Afghan Taliban figures were captured by the Pakistan army on the border between the two countries.

Karzai had been embarking on possible reconciliation negotiations to end the eight-year war.

It is known that Mullah Omar resisted the offer of talks and that Baradar had to stand up to fierce opposition within his ranks to negotiate with the Afghanistan government.