Al-Jazeera correspondent in Afghanistan quoted a source in the presidency as saying that the government retracted, at a US request, the decision not to release 400 detainees from the Taliban movement for their involvement in "serious crimes".

The source added that the government will release the detainees within two or three days, followed by the resumption of negotiations between the two parties in the Qatari capital, Doha.

"The issue of releasing the detainees is up to the United States and they have to release them according to the framework of the Doha agreement," Sher Muhammad Stankzai, a member of the Taliban's political bureau, told Al-Jazeera.

These developments come after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Friday that he does not have the powers to release the last batch of the movement's 400-strong fighters without the approval of the expanded Loya Jirga.

The government has accused about 200 of them of plotting attacks on embassies, public squares and government offices in recent years, which have killed thousands of civilians.

In contrast, Reuters quoted US official sources as saying that Washington proposed moving them to a house arrest facility after their release, in an attempt to stimulate peace talks.

The sources said that American diplomats offered the Taliban and the Afghan government the position of the movement's fighters accused of carrying out some of the deadliest attacks in a supervised facility.

Eid truce
In a related context, calm prevailed in most parts of Afghanistan on Saturday, with the ceasefire between the Taliban and government forces continuing for the second day in a row, on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, which raised hopes that the two sides will start peace talks soon.

No clashes were reported since Friday, while Afghans took advantage of the situation to continue celebrating Eid al-Adha.

The truce is to last three days, the third official ceasefire in almost 19 years of the war that destroyed Afghanistan.

On February 29, Doha witnessed an agreement between the United States and the Taliban that would pave the way - according to a timetable - for a gradual US withdrawal from Afghanistan and a prisoner exchange.

Under the agreement, talks between the "Afghans" were scheduled to start in March, but were postponed amid political disputes in Kabul and the controversial prisoner exchange process continued.

Washington is seeking to break the deadlock in order to score concrete results before the US presidential elections in November, during which President Donald Trump will strive to show off his success in ending the 19-year-old Afghan war.