Turkey Plans Afghanistan Peace Summit in Late April

ANKARA - Turkey will host a peace summit for Afghanistan from April 24 to May 4 meant to jump-start efforts to end the war and sketch out a possible political settlement, Turkish authorities said on Tuesday.

The meeting would include the United Nations and Qatar as part of a U.S.-backed push to advance talks ahead of a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan. Turkey's foreign ministry said the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgent group would attend. However, the Taliban said they had not yet committed to those dates.  "Our internal discussions regarding this have not completed yet, the date can't be specified until our discussions are completed," said Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem.