KABUL: The Taleban denied reports Saturday that insurgent leaders met with the top United Nations envoy for Afghanistan to discuss bringing peace to war-torn country.

In a statement sent to media in Kabul, the Taleban called the reports of talks with envoy Kai Eide as “baseless rumors” and mere “propaganda.”

“The Islamic Leadership Council once again emphasizes continuation of Jihad against all invaders,” it said.

Although Eide has not publicly acknowledged the talks, some Afghan and Western media reported that the meeting took place in Dubai earlier this month.

Zabehullah Mujahed, purportedly a Taleban spokesman, said the Taleban’s refusal to negotiate peace had ensured that an international conference in London on Thursday, attended by around 70 countries, was a failure.

“Now in an effort to recover their military and political prestige, the enemies are resorting to a propaganda conspiracy,” he said by phone from an undisclosed location.

Reports that Eide had met Taleban figures emerged after the London conference, which aimed to thrash out a road map for Afghanistan’s future, one of the main themes being the social reintegration of Taleban fighters.

A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “active members of the insurgency” had met Eide in Dubai on Jan. 8, at their request, to discuss peace talks.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who hosted the conference, declined Friday to comment on the reported meeting, calling it an “allegation”.

Eide’s spokesman in Kabul, Dan McNorton, said: “The special representative never comments on meetings of this sort. “It is the Afghan government who are and will lead all efforts to bring peace to this country,” he said, adding: “As always the United Nations stands ready to assist in the process in any way that we can.”

A Western diplomat, who asked not to be named, said it was not clear who was involved in the meeting as insurgent groups in different parts of the country fight under different banners.

“In the south it’s Al-Qaeda or the Haqqani network or criminal gangs who don’t fall under the Taleban,” he said, referring to one of the major sticking points in forging a peace deal.

“There is talk it could have been the Quetta shura,” he said, referring to the leadership of the Afghan Taleban based across the border in Pakistan.

President Hamid Karzai said in London Thursday that he would summon a “peace jirga,” or council of elders, later in the year to discuss prospects of peace in Afghanistan and reintegration of Taleban fighters.

Karzai has said he will not negotiate with Al-Qaeda and the Taleban have said they will not hold peace talks until foreign troops leave Afghanistan.

Karzai’s government is backed by 113,000 US and NATO troops, with another 40,000 being deployed this year to take the fight to the Taleban.