According to New York Times, the former officials said that four to eight Taliban representatives had traveled to Qatar from Pakistan to set up a political office for the exiled Afghan insurgent group.

The comments suggested that the Taliban, which have not publicly said they would engage in peace talks to end the war in Afghanistan, were at least gearing up for preliminary discussions.

But the former Taliban officials, interviewed Saturday here in Kabul, were careful not to call the discussions peace talks, and U.S. officials would not confirm or deny that meetings had taken place.

“Currently there are no peace talks going on,” said Maulavi Qalamuddin Latifi, the former minister of vice and virtue for the Taliban, who is now a member of the High Peace Council. “The only thing is the negotiations over release of Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo which is still under discussion between both sides in Qatar.

“We also want to strengthen the talks so we can create an environment of trust for further talks in the future.”

The State Department has said that Marc Grossman, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, had meetings related to Afghanistan when he visited Qatar last week.