By Terry Friel KABUL, April 12 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai, facing a new political challenge and mounting criticism over lack of progress in five years of war, has asked a group of former Taliban to mediate with the rebels to seek peace. But one of the group's leaders, while strongly supporting peace talks, said on Thursday they would not mediate until the United States backed the plan and unless they received safety assurances from the government and their former Taliban comrades. "We need insurance, we need a guarantee of our lives," the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan and a former deputy minister, Abdul Salam Zaeef, told Reuters. "And without foreign support, we can't mediate." As the ambassador to Afghanistan's then sponsor, Zaeef was the group's face to the world at its downfall. Last year saw the worst fighting since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 and many expect this summer to be bloodier. Five years on, the Taliban are stronger than ever and public disillusionment with foreign troops, Karzai's rule, and the failure to see billions of dollars in aid turned into proper reconstruction and a better life is mounting. Analysts and some politicians are increasingly calling on the government to talk with the Taliban, but there are divisions. Some say any talks must include leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and others insist they can only include moderates. "Exceptions don't work," Zaeef said at his Kabul rented home, dressed in a black silk turban and wearing a white salwar-kameez -- a long shirt over baggy trousers. "It's a sort of conspiracy," he said, adding the Taliban do not label themselves as moderates or hardliners. Karzai said last week for the first time he had spoken to Taliban leaders about talks, but gave no details. Zaeef said he and about 50 former Taliban officials, as well as some tribal chiefs, were summoned to the palace last month to talk to Karzai about mediating with the Taliban. FEAR OF BOTH SIDES But they fear they could be killed by the rebels, or picked up by Afghan or U.S. forces if they venture into Taliban territory without assurances from all sides. "Karzai is serious. The problem is the Taliban don't think he is in free to decide," Zaeef said, referring to what many analysts see as a major problem for the Afghan leader -- satisfying his foreign allies and domestic players. This month, key members of Karzai's government joined his critics to form a new political force, the National Front, effectively the first opposition in a parliament that has no formal party structure. Their key demand is to balance Karzai's power with an appointed prime minister. Although he is not under house arrest and is able to move freely around Kabul, two Afghan police guard the gates of Zaeef, a man who spent four years in the United States' Guantanamo Bay prison. He must receive government permission to travel outside Kabul or the country. Zaeef said support for the Taliban was growing because people were angry at a lack of jobs or real progress in reconstruction, as well as reliance on fighting by foreign troops. "There is no complete and instant solution for Afghanistan ... (but the people) want jobs, they want a good life, they want a happy life" he said. "Some people are upset by foreign policies. Zaeef also said people are in doubt about what "the purpose of the Americans (is). What do they want? What are they doing here? How long will they be here in Afghanistan? "Using guns and aircraft and... killing is not good for Afghanistan, it's not bringing pleasure for the people."
