KABUL – The Afghan Taliban are likely to miss an Afghan peace conferenceat which participants are set to call for direct talks between the militantgroup and the government of Presidentlink>link>Ashraf Ghanilink> , the foreign ministry inUzbekistan said on Monday.

Representatives of the group have made no application to attend the March26-27 meeting in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, suggesting they will notattend, a ministry statement said.

Ghani is set to attend along with US Deputy Secretary of State JohnSullivan and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

Also set to attend are the foreign ministers of India, Iran, Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Turkey and UN SpecialRepresentative for link>link>Afghanistanlink> , Tadamichi Yamamoto.

The link>link>Talibanlink> urged Washington last month to begintalks to end almost 17 years of war inlink>link>Afghanistanlink> , which suggests they want toexplore dialogue.

The group ruled link>link>Afghanistanlink> until 2001 when it was defeated byUS-led troops in the wake of the September 11 attacks and it is fighting torestore Islamic rule in the country.

Ghani in February offered recognition of thelink> link>Taliban link> as a legitimate political groupas part of a proposed process he said could lead to talks. -Agencies