A key gathering opened on Monday in Islamabad in which four major countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States - hope to lay the roadmap to peace for the war-shattered Afghan nation.
The meeting comes as battlefield losses in Afghanistan are mounting and entire swaths of the country that cost hundreds of U.S.-led coalition and Afghan military lives to secure slip back into Taliban hands. Taliban representatives have not been invited to the talks, vowing to talk only to the U.S. and not to the Afghan government.
As the gathering got under way, host Pakistan - seen as key to bringing the warring Taliban factions to the table - cautioned of the difficulties ahead.
