Foreign secretary David Miliband has moved to draw a clear distinction between the ideologies of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The two groups, which operate in a similar geographical location in the tribal areas that border Afghanistan and Pakistan, were frequently grouped together into the key antagonist of the Bush administration's war on terror.

In a speech on rectifying the "division and distrust" that have characterised the west's relations with the Muslim world, Mr Miliband said the "vast majority" of the Taliban had no ideological ties with al-Qaida whatsoever.

The Taliban, ousted by a US coalition in 2001, seeks local Islamic rule, not global jihad.

Mr Miliband explained that a central part of Britain's strategy in the country, where an insurgency still rages, was to convince the local communities that their aims were achievable through peaceable means.

"It is by drawing more Pashtun and other tribal representatives away from violence and into the political arena that we can hope to stabilise Afghanistan," the foreign secretary said at the Oxford Centre for Islamic studies.

"Some representatives of those conservative tribal values were excluded from the Bonn - victors only - conference in 2001.

"Peace and security in Afghanistan does not turn purely on the men in uniform; it depends on a broader and more inclusive political settlement."

Mr Miliband revealed that he was in full support of the Afghan government in Kabul's attempt to reintegrate elements of the Taliban willing to abandon violence and renounce al-Qaida.

On wider issues affecting the west and the Muslim world, Mr Miliband typified relations as being defined by "conquest, conflict and colonialism", and argued the only way to change these perceptions was by building coalitions and winning consent.

After admitting that the west had become to be seen not as not "anti-terror, but as anti-Islam", he called on the west to show "greater respect".

"That means rejecting the lazy stereotypes and moving beyond the binary division between moderates and extremists," the foreign secretary said.

"We should not just see Muslims as Muslims, but as people in all the many guises they occupy in their lives – at home, at work, in all the many aspects of a rounded individual life. There is always more to life than is captured by a single label."

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