A LOCAL organisation has proposed holding the first international youth peace conference in Kabul.

Durham-based agency Europa Youth, which earlier this year launched the Angel Project to make the area a world centre of youth activity, made the suggestion in a letter to Hamid Katzai, the new president of Afghanistan.

With no means of communication between Britain and the Afghan capital of Kabul, the group enlisted the help of the SAS to deliver it.

Former soldier James Gilman, director of Europa Youth, said: "This is not the first time the SAS has helped us in this way.

"In particular, they provided a line of communication between ourselves and the Bosnian government in Sarajevo when that city was under siege from the Serb forces.

"As a result, we were able to co-operate with the Bosnian prime minister and the lord mayor of Sarajevo in a youth project in that city following its liberation.

"With our plans for a youth peace conference having already received the approval of military organisations such as the Royal British Legion, it's not really surprising that the SAS should volunteer its services and signal its good wishes for our success."

Europa Youth has sent a parallel letter to America's special envoy to Afghanistan with a view to securing American support for the conference.

It would involve 200 delegates aged under 25, drawn from nations throughout the world, considering how their generation could contribute to eliminating war.