Afghan President Hamid Karzai said last night that he has suspended talks with the United States on a new security deal to protest against the way the Americans are reaching out to the Taleban in efforts to find a political solution to the war.
Karzai says he has suspended negotiations with the US on what troops will remain in the country after 2014. He says he did this "in view of the contradiction between acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the peace process."
Karzai has said he wants one-on-one talks with the Taleban but the Taleban and US announced they would begin talks together first tomorrow, before the Afghan Government was brought in.
Four American soldiers have been killed in an Taleban attack on Bagram Air Base.
The Taleban has claimed responsibility for the attack. One key condition of the talks was the proviso that the Taleban renounces violence.
The first meeting will be in Doha, Qatar's capital, where the Taleban has opened its first official office abroad. Washington dropped its long-standing demand that the movement renounce ties with al-Qaeda as a precondition for the talks.
The Taleban has repeatedly refused to meet Afghan peace envoys.
But after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, the movement has agreed to open the Doha office to facilitate talks.
"The office is to open dialogue between the Taleban and the world," said Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, although he made no reference to peace talks or the Afghan Government.
None of the parties expects any imminent breakthrough, but US officials described the opening of talks as an "important development" on the road to reconciliation.
They were at pains to be realistic about the road ahead, conceding that levels of trust were "extremely low".
Officials said the first meeting would simply be an "exchange of agendas" in which both sides laid out what issues they wanted to address. It could be followed by a second meeting in coming weeks.