WASHINGTON, Rabi' Al-Awwal 16, 1432 H/Feb 19, 2011, SPA -- The United States has entered into direct talks with leaders of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but contacts are exploratory and not yet a peace negotiation, according to an article on Saturday in The New Yorker magazine. The article, citing people briefed on the talks, said the talks are to assess who in the Taliban leadership, if anyone, might engage in formal peace negotiations and under what conditions. "They're exploratory, at least as I understand them," Reuters cited Steve Coll, the article's author, as saying in an interview on National Public Radio. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has held sporadic talks with current and former Taliban members, but with little apparent result. There was a flurry of unsourced or guardedly sourced newspaper reports last year of secret talks, sponsored by NATO, between Afghan officials and Taliban leaders. --SPA 19:14 LOCAL TIME 16:14 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/866007