Kabul, Afghanistan ? Commanding Gen. David Petraeus confirmed Friday that coalition forces have allowed Taliban representatives to travel to Kabul for peace discussions with the Afghan government, but a Taliban spokesman said all such talk is only propaganda, designed to lower the morale of the movement’s fighters.

U.S., Afghan and Taliban sources all declined to give details of the contacts, if they are taking place at all.

“There have been several very senior Taliban leaders who have reached out to the Afghan government at the highest levels, and also in some cases have reached out to other countries involved in Afghanistan,” Petraeus told reporters at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

“These discussions can only be characterized as preliminary in nature,” Petraeus said. “They certainly would not rise to the level of being called negotiations.”

In Afghanistan, Taliban leaders have told followers that there are no official peace talks with the U.S.-backed Afghan government, an apparent move to persuade their rank-and-file to stay in the fight.

U.S. officials speaking anonymously say there have been preliminary discussions that date back a couple of months and involve mid- to senior-level Taliban but not top-level decision-makers.

Petraeus indicated that Taliban representatives had been given safe passage by coalition forces. It was not known if that included providing transport or other NATO facilities to support the talks.

One Taliban representative involved could be Mullah Abdul Kabir, the former Taliban governor of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. According to two Afghan sources with knowledge of the contacts, Kabir has reached out to Karzai through an intermediary. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they did not want to compromise their relations with the Taliban or international community.

The Taliban deny that any official representatives are engaged in such discussions and vow to fight until the Americans leave.

“Believe me, no official envoy came,” said Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan. Zaeef was imprisoned at Guantanamo but has resumed his contacts with the movement since his release in 2005.

The Taliban accused the U.S.-led NATO coalition of trying to weaken the spirit of insurgents, especially in the south where they are engaged in fierce fights against tens of thousands of NATO troops pushing deeper into areas long held by militants.

“We are fighting against Americans and we will continue it until the time the Americans leave this country,” said Qari Yousef, the Taliban spokesman in southern Afghanistan. “The so-called Taliban who are talking to the government are not related to us. This is propaganda to lower the morale of the Taliban, but it will not work.”

Amanullah Mujahid, a 31-year-old Taliban fighter who was reached by the AP in the Afghan province of Zabul, said that when he heard that the U.S. said Taliban leaders had been talking to the Karzai government, he and his fellow fighters were disheartened. “We didn’t expect it and it hurt our morale,” said Mujahid.

He said their spirits were lifted when the Taliban leadership sent a message to his commanders denying involvement in any talks.

“Now we know that NATO is just using such propaganda to divide us,” he said.