Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai has confirmed his representative will meet with Taliban officials in the next few weeks for peace talks.

Peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban stalled after the assassination of Afghanistan's chief negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani last year.

But Mr Karzai says talks will now resume, with Burhanuddin Rabbani's son, Salahuddin Rabbani, expected to meet Taliban officials in Pakistan sometime in the next few weeks.

Mr Karzai says most of the Taliban are not terrorists, but instead are people who have been driven from their homes and their land as a result of the conflict in Afghanistan.

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And he says the Taliban has a legitimate role to play in a peaceful Afghanistan.

"Let's differentiate between the bad ones and the Afghan ones," he said.

"Some Taliban may be categorised as terrorists," he said.

"But the majority of them, the thousands of them who have been driven from their homes by NATO forces or by circumstances within Afghanistan, they are the sons of Afghans so they will come back to their homes and to their country and their families.

"Those who are with terrorist networks ...who are 'bad guys' ... are elements that no Afghan would like to see again."

The resumption of talks coincides with the re-election of US president Barack Obama, and with the 2014 withdrawal deadline for Western troops fast approaching.

Heather Barr, an Afghanistan expert for Human Rights Watch, says the timing is more than just a coincidence.

"There's been a lot of speculation that negotiations with the Taliban were on hold awaiting the resolution of the US election, and that we would see a burst of activity once the US election was over," she said.

Many analysts say Afghanistan's best hope for peace involves settlement with the Taliban.

Ms Barr says Afghanistan is aware of the Taliban's strength - not only in military terms, but also among Afghanistan's population.

"There are quite a few Afghans who support the Taliban," she said.

"Obviously, [Mr Karzai is] recognising that he can't kill his way into a solution to that problem."