ISLAMABAD, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Taliban Sunday rejected the jirga, or the council of tribal elders, proposed by Pakistani and Afghan presidents to discuss options to end violence in Afghanistan, according to the local NNI news agency.

    Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreed to hold jirga in their meeting hosted by U.S. President Bush in Washington in September.

    "The jirga, proposed by presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan, has no worth. It would be just a political gathering of two leaders. It would be only their official meeting. It is not acceptable to the Afghan nation," Taliban spokesman Muhammad Hanif said.

    According to the NNI, Hanif made the remarks via satellite from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan.

    "We have already rejected possibility of anyone taking part in jirga if foreign troops are present in Afghanistan. Those jirgas being organized under the aegis of occupation forces will not be acceptable to Afghans," he said.

    The NNI quoted Hanif as saying that unless Afghanistan is liberated and foreign soldiers quit, the homeland can not be benefited.

    He said that Taliban are agreed with the notion of jirgas but they should be held when the country is liberated.

    "If foreign troops are in Afghanistan, when American flags are fluttering on our airports, government affairs are run by others, laws of aliens are implemented, then no Afghan will accept jirgas in such situation," the Taliban spokesman said.

    He said that the sole solution of Afghan problem is that Americans and its allies leave Afghanistan.