U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has accepted that the State Department along with some countries has been conducting preliminary “outreach” talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan. He told CNN television that these contacts are at very preliminary stage. He said it was crucial this point to determine who really represents the Taliban. It is the first time the US has acknowledged such contact and it comes a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in Kabul that peace talks had started. He said the United States was in contact with the Taliban over a possible end to the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan.