The Taliban "strongly dismiss this statement by (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai," spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement on the militants` website.
"The head of the Kabul administration in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal newspaper said that the US and the Kabul government have initiated secret talks with Taliban and these talks have been very fruitful!" the statement said.
The Taliban said last month that they planned to set up a political office in Qatar ahead of possible formal talks with the United States, and Afghan and US officials have said that exploratory contacts are already underway.
Dismissing Karzai`s claim of Afghan involvement as false, Mujahid said no decision had yet been taken to hold talks with what he described as the "powerless" Kabul administration.
In the interview with the Wall Street Journal published Thursday, Karzai said the Afghan government was part of a three-way peace dialogue involving the US and the Taliban.
Kabul has expressed fear of being marginalised as United States officials explore a dialogue with the Islamist Taliban, who in turn have said they have no intention to talk to what they call Karzai`s US-backed "puppet" government.
But in the newspaper interview, Karzai said the Afghan government was indeed involved in the dialogue and that most Taliban were "definitively" interested in a peace deal as foreign troops exit.
"There have been contacts between the US government and the Taliban, there have been contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and there have been some contacts that we have made, all of us together, including the Taliban," Karzai was quoted as saying.
"If anyone has held talks with the Karzai government as a representative of the Islamic Emirate, he has been an impostor," the Taliban statement said.
"There have been such cases before and it is possible that somebody may have again deceived this administration.`
In 2010, a man posing as a high-ranking Taliban leader, Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, reportedly met three times with Afghan and NATO officials and received cash payments before it was discovered that he was an imposter. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
