Governance-US hails talks with Taliban, denies troop withdrawal window

A US official says the latest round of talks with the Taliban, now in their second week, has been "very productive," while strenuously denying Washington sought a fixed deadline for the withdrawal of its estimated 14,000 troops from Afghanistan. A member of the American negotiating team in Qatar's capital, Doha, where the Taliban maintain a political office and talks are being held, told The Associated Press Friday that the U.S. "definitely did not offer" an 18-month withdrawal as part of a peace deal.

Speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the talks, the U.S. negotiator was responding to a timeframe Taliban officials told the AP months earlier. Also on Saturday, prominent Afghan figures were headed to Qatar ahead of much-anticipated all-Afghan talks to begin on Sunday.