The chief of American spy agency CIA William J Burns held a secret meeting with the Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday, according to the Washington Post which quoted unnamed US officials.
This was the highest-level face-to-face encounter between the two sides and comes more than a week after the insurgent group seized power in Afghanistan, the Post report said.
A close friend of the Taliban's founding supreme leader Muhammad Omar, Baradar is believed to hold significant influence over the Taliban rank-and-file, according to Washington Post.
It added that Burns made a similar unannounced trip to Afghanistan in April this year amid concerns over the ability to stop the Taliban offensive.
As director, Burns oversees a spy agency that trained elite Afghan special forces units who had been viewed as a potent force in the country.
