KABUL - President Hamid Karzai Sunday said that the senior Taliban leaders and the US are holding talks in Qatar and Europe without the Afghan government.

"The senior leaders of the Taliban and the Americans are engaged in talks in Europe and the Gulf state every day," Karzai told a gathering to mark International Women's Day in Kabul.

The Taliban officially ended talks with the US a year ago amid disagreement about the release of Taliban prisoners from US military prison based in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay.

But the Taliban has denied that any negotiations with the US have happened since last year's suspension, and said no progress had been made.

The US government, for its part, has said it remains committed to the Afghan political reconciliation with the Taliban, but progress would require agreement between the Afghan government and the insurgents.

Karzai also used his speech to accuse the Taliban of supporting on ongoing US presence in Afghanistan with its persistent suicide attacks.

"The blasts indeed show support for the Americans to stay in Afghanistan after 2014," he told those present.

"Yesterday's bombings in Khost and Kabul were not aimed at showing their strength to the USA but to serve the USA," he added.

Karzai's reiterated a point he has made before - that the US presence is destabilising - by saying that Afghanistan will have more stability post-2014.

The Taliban has stepped up attacks in the country's capital Kabul, most recently with a suicide attack Saturday at the Ministry of Defence which killed 9 people and injured 13 others - mostly civilians.

The Taliban said in a statement that "the attack happened during the trip of the US Defence Secretary, and the attack had a message for him."

Newly-appointed US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel is in Afghanistan on his first state trip abroad to visit US troops and Karzai.

Hagel, who arrived Friday, is focusing his meetings with Karzai on discussing the recent decision to expel US special forces from the central Wardak province and the transfer of Bagram prison from US to Afghan forces. (Tolo News)