Outgoing US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Sunday that Washington had started "very preliminary" talks with the Taliban in a bid to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan, dpa reported.
In remarks to the TV news network CNN eleven days before he steps down from office, Gates confirmed direct contacts had been established with the Taliban.
"There's been outreach on the part of a number of countries, including the United States," he said. "I would say that these contacts are very preliminary."
Gates said the communications were being handled by the State Department and had been going on for "a few weeks, maybe."
But the process of finding a resolution could be a lengthy one said Gates, who began his tenure as defense secretary under former president George W Bush in 2006 and continued on under President Barack Obama.
"My own view is that real reconciliation talks are not likely to be able to make any substantive headway until at least this winter," Gates told CNN's "State of the Union" programme.
He said that among the US conditions put to the Taliban include completely dissociating from al-Qaeda and "meeting the redlines that (Afghan) President (Hamid) Karzai and the coalition have laid down."
His remarks, acknowledging that some people may be "war weary," at least indirectly were critical of the Bush administration's handling of the war.
He said that after winning the war in Afghanistan in 2001-2002, the US became "diverted by Iraq. And we basically neglected Afghanistan for several years."
"The reality is the United States had a very limited commitment in Afghanistan until well into 2008. And we didn't have the right strategy and the right resources for this conflict," said Gates.
Looking at US exit strategies for Afghanistan, Gates told CNN, "how this ends is essentially the same way that it ended in Iraq - with us playing a key role for some period of time."
He outlined a transition to Afghan leadership in which Kabul would keep control of the country, al-Qaed would no longer find a safe haven, and Taliban could not forcibly overthrow the government.