The most senior Taliban leader held by US -forces in Afghanistan has been freed after helping to broker talks between US officials and Taliban fighters.

A senior foreign ministry official in southern Afghanistan said that Muttawakil had been freed from the US military headquarters at Bagram after helping to arrange talks between US forces and the Taliban in the southern city of Kandahar. A close friend of Muttawakil said he had been released five days ago.

?Now he is living with his family in Kandahar,? he said. ?I myself have spoken to him by telephone.?

The foreign ministry official, who did not want to be named, said Muttawakil had played ?a very important role? in arranging talks between U.S. forces and the Taliban near the airport in Kandahar a few days ago, but declined to give more details.

U.S. military officials could not immediately be reached for comment and have not indicated that they have been in talks with the Taliban, which has stepped up attacks on US -led forces and others in recent months.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage visited Kandahar Sunday and afterwards said the Taliban were ?frightened.? . The US embassy spokesman in Kabul, Roy Glover, said he did not know if Armitage had met any Taliban officials.

Taliban intelligence official Mullah Abdul Samad said the group had had no contact with Muttawakil. ?There is a possibility he may have been released to sow rifts in Taliban ranks,? he said. Some Taliban officials mentioned they had reports that the talks may have involved the Taliban?s former Interior Minister, Mullah Abdul Razzak, acting without the consent of Omar.

In Kabul, foreign ministry spokesman Omar Samad said he was still checking the report of Muttawakil?s release, but added: ?we are pretty sure that that?s the case.? At the same time, he said there could be no compromise with militant Taliban who continued to carry out "terrorist" attacks, he said. ?One needs to differentiate between those who are fighting and those who are not posing a threat to Afghanistan and are leading peaceful and productive lives,? he said.

The chief justice of the Supreme Court, Mawlavi Fazi Hadi Shinwari, said yesterday that it was the policy of the government to leave the door open for Taliban members whose hands were ?not tainted with the blood of Muslims.?

?If they want to negotiate with us we are ready to have negotiations with them and they can come back to the homeland as Afghan citizens,? he said.

He said the government had received a list of 30 Taliban members who wished to talk, but declined to give further details. However he said the Taliban?s former deputy justice minister, Mawlavi Jalaluddin Shinwari, had already joined the government after holding talks in Kabul. Most of the Taliban?s top leadership, including its one-eyed supreme leader Mullah Omar, have evaded U.S.-led forces since the movement was swept from power in late 2001. But US -led forces arrested several Taliban officials in early 2002, including Mullah Mohammad Chamkani, a former adviser to Omar.

Saeed Ali Achakzai