US holding preliminary talks with Taliban: Gates

The US on Sunday acknowledged that it is engaged in preliminary outreach talks with the Taliban along with some other countries to politically settle the decade-long conflict in the country.

Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the contacts were being made but that does not mean the US intends to ease the pressure on the Taliban in the war zone. I think there has been outreach on the part of a number of countries,including the US. I would say that these contacts are very preliminary at this point, Gates told the CNN in an interview.