The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to treat al-Qaida and the Taliban separately when it comes to U.N. sanctions, a move aimed at supporting the Afghan government's reconciliation efforts and more effectively fighting global terrorism.

The council's adoption of two resolutions symbolically severs al-Qaida and the Taliban, which were previously tied in the same U.N. sanctions regime, and recognizes their different agendas.

While Al-Qaida is focused on worldwide jihad against the West and establishment of a religious state in the Muslim world, Taliban militants have focused on their own country and have shown little interest in attacking targets abroad.

"Today, the council has taken an important step in strengthening one of its key tools in the fight against terrorism," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said after the vote. "We have adopted a new sanctions regime targeting the insurgency in Afghanistan and a second targeting the terrorism threat posed by al-Qaida."

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the new sanctions regime for Afghanistan "will serve as an important tool to promote reconciliation, while isolating extremists" and also "sends a clear message to the Taliban that there is a future for those who separate from al-Qaida."

At the same time, she said, al-Qaida and its associates will now be the focus of a separate, strengthened sanctions regime and will continue to face tough and comprehensive measures aimed at countering their global threat.

"The United States remains committed to disrupting, dismantling and defeating al-Qaida using every weapon at our disposal," Rice stressed in a statement.

The resolutions _ spearheaded by the United States and co-sponsored by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal _ maintain sanctions on roughly 310 individuals, entities and organizations with links to al-Qaida and about 140 with links to the Taliban.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been making peace overtures to members of the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan for five years and sheltered al-Qaida before being driven out of power in the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001. The Taliban have long demanded removal from the sanctions list to help promote reconciliation.

The Afghan government recently asked the Security Council committee that monitored sanctions against the two groups to take about 50 Taliban figures off the sanctions list. The committee was expected to rule on the requests this week, but diplomats said the council extended the deadline until July 15 to give delegations more time to consider the information provided by the Afghan government in support of the delisting requests.

Germany's U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig, who chaired the sanctions committee, said the council sent "a strong signal of trust and support for the peace and reconciliation efforts of the government of Afghanistan" in the new resolution by giving the government "a distinct and visible role" in the process of deciding who should be added to the Taliban sanctions list _ and who should be taken off.

The resolution "welcomes the government of Afghanistan's desire to assist the committee in the coordination of listing and delisting requests and in the submission of all relevant information to the (sanctions) committee."

It also directs the new Afghan sanctions committee "to remove expeditiously" from the blacklist people and groups that meet the reconciliation conditions agreed to by the Afghan government and the international community _ renouncing violence, severing links to international terrorist organizations including al-Qaida, and respecting the Afghan Constitution "including the rights of women and persons belonging to minorities."

The Security Council imposed sanctions against the Taliban in November 1999 for refusing to send Osama bin Laden to the United States or a third country for trial on terrorism charges in connection with the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

The sanctions _ a travel ban, arms embargo and assets freeze _ were later extended to al-Qaida. In July 2005, the council extended the sanctions again to cover affiliates and splinter groups of al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Since sanctions were first imposed, questions have been raised about the fairness of the list and the rights of those subject to punitive measures to argue their case for being removed.

In December 2009, the Security Council established an independent ombudsman to deal with requests to get off the blacklist, gather information, and report to the sanctions committee with the ombudsman's own observations _ but without a recommendation.

The resolution adopted Friday strengthens the role of the ombudsman, presently Canadian lawyer Kimberly Prost, authorizing her to present "observations and a recommendation on the delisting" to the committee.

If the ombudsman recommends delisting, the resolution states that the individual or entity will be taken off the sanctions list in 60 days unless the sanctions committee agrees by consensus to maintain sanctions against the person or group though the question can be submitted to the Security Council.

Germany's Wittig welcomed this as "a major achievement."

The resolution includes other measures aimed at improving fairness and transparency including urging countries that put individuals or organizations on the list to reveal their identities to petitioners trying to get off the blacklist.

France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said strengthening the ombudsperson's powers and making listing and delisting more transparent and flexible should answer criticism "by judicial authorities in Europe and elsewhere."