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Afghanistan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasool speaks during a joint press conference with his Pakistan counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, unseen, at the foreign ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

The Taliban have dismissed reports they are preparing to talk peace with the Afghan government, and a leaked NATO report has shown captured insurgents full of confidence they will seize power after international troops leave.

While both developments Wednesday were setbacks to President Hamid Karzai's quest to broker peace with the Taliban, his government got a big boost from Pakistan's top diplomat who declared her nation's support for an Afghan-led reconciliation process.

Still, steps toward finding a political resolution to the 10-year-old war continue to be bogged down in discussions among the U.S. and its partners over venues, agendas and conflicting interests.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said she was visiting Kabul to deliver the strong message that Pakistan would stand behind any peace initiative that was widely supported by all ethnic groups in Afghanistan.

"Our only prerequisite to be supportive of an initiative is that it should be Afghan-led," she said. "It should be Afghan-owned. It should be Afghan-driven and Afghan-backed."

She said the Afghans should determine the way forward and then nations in the region and the greater international community should back the plan.

"This is the way the direction should be seen, rather than the other way around where others determine the direction, and the Afghans, we feel, are sometimes left to follow," she said.

While she didn't mention the United States, Afghan officials have complained privately that the peace effort has so far been dominated by American efforts and U.S. talks with Taliban representatives. Rumours have swirled for days that Karzai's government was seeking direct talks with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia, a move seen as Karzai's attempt to take charge of the peace effort.

A statement Wednesday from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected those reports as "baseless."

The Taliban calls the Afghan government a puppet regime. The insurgency, however, has agreed to set up a political office in the Gulf state of Qatar and has acknowledged having preliminary discussions with the U.S.

"Before the negotiation phase, there should be trust-building between the sides, which has not started yet," Mujahid said.

U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged Tuesday that to build trust with the Taliban, the United States may release several Afghan Taliban prisoners from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No decision has been made.

Karzai was angry that Qatar had agreed to host a Taliban political office without fully consulting his government, according to a senior Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. Karzai prefers Saudi Arabia or Turkey, where he believes he would have the upper hand in guiding the talks, the official said. The Afghan government fears that the U.S., eager to wrap up a decade in Afghanistan, will try to impose a political settlement with the Taliban, the official said.

Marc Grossman, the special U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, says the U.S. is only taking steps to help Afghans talk directly with Afghans. He told Pakistan's Dunya TV on Tuesday in Washington that more work was needed before an office could be opened.

Khar was the first high-level Pakistani official to visit Kabul since last fall when relations between the neighbours soured after the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and former head of the government's peace council. He was killed in his Kabul home Sept. 20, 2011, by a suicide bomber posing as a peace emissary from the Taliban. Afghan officials blamed insurgents based in Pakistan.

Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmay Rasoul hailed Khar's visit as a breakthrough toward better relations and said there can be no permanent peace until there is serious and honest co-operation between the nations.

The ministry said Karzai would travel to Islamabad Feb. 16-17, when he would be expected to push Pakistan to follow through on concrete steps Afghanistan wants Pakistan to take to facilitate the peace process, according to an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate negotiations.

Davood Moradian, assistant professor of political science at American University in Kabul, said he thinks Khar's trip to Kabul was an effort to capitalize on differences emerging between the Afghan government and Washington over the peace process.

"Deepening the division between Kabul and Washington that will weaken both Kabul and Washington is the main objective of Pakistan," he said. "I don't think they have any interest in genuine co-operation with us on the peace process."

However, a person familiar with Khar's visit to Kabul stressed that Pakistan was willing to help forge peace. The individual, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose details of the day's discussions, said Khar held in-depth meetings with members of Afghanistan's ethnic minority factions. They fear that Karzai, a member of the majority Pashtun group, will make too many concessions to the Taliban to shore up his Pashtun base.

Afghan officials did not give the indication that peace talks in Saudi Arabia were imminent, although Pakistan did signal that it would help facilitate safe passage for insurgent leaders to attend talks in future venues as it had for those travelling to Qatar, the individual said.

Khar's visit to Kabul came on the same day a classified NATO report was leaked, claiming that the Taliban believe they will return to power after the U.S.-led coalition ends its combat role in Afghanistan in 2014. The report, which was based on the interrogation of more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaida and foreign fighters, was obtained by the BBC and other news organizations.

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Associated Press Writers Patrick Quinn, Kay Johnson, Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Kathy Gannon in Islamabad, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Pauline Jelinek and Lolita Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.