Britain should reach out to elements of the Taliban who can be won over to democracy, Defence Secretary Des Browne has suggested.
He said individuals had to be judged by their actions and those disposed to persuasion had to be engaged even if their views were disagreeable.
He applied the same point to the Lebanese paramilitary group Hizbollah as well as the Taliban enemy of British troops in Afghanistan.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Saturday, he said: "What you need to do in conflict resolution is to bring the people who believe that the answer to their political ambitions will be achieved through violence into a frame of mind that they accept that their political ambitions will be delivered by politics.
He said there was currently "no basis of negotiation with al Qaeda".
He added: "But the Taliban is a collective noun. There are some people who are driven by their own self interest rather than ideology.
"There's no question that we should try to reach them. People have been switched.
"We have to get people who have previously been on the side of the Taliban to come onto the side of the Government."
