Kabul, Feb 2 : Several Afghans are gearing for the return of the Taliban to power, even as the United States and its allies enter what they hope to be the final phase of the war, a new report has revealed.

A NATO report titled "State of the Taliban 2012," cites accounts of cooperation between the insurgents and local government officials or security forces, as well as accounts from Taliban detainees who claimed that the Afghan military is cooperating with the insurgents in areas where coalition soldiers are withdrawing.

"Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban," the New York Times quoted report, as saying.

The Afghan government "continues to declare its willingness to fight, yet many of its personnel have secretly reached out to insurgents, seeking long-term options in the event of a possible Taliban victory," it added.

The report is based on 27,000 interrogations of 4,000 Taliban and other captives comes in the wake of US Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta declaring that American forces would end their a combat role in Afghanistan as early as mid-2013, more than a year before their withdrawal.

The report's findings challenge the assumption of the US policy in Afghanistan that the Afghan security forces would be able to assume their role successfully after the NATO troops' withdraw from the country.

The report also said the Taliban captives claimed that their group have mostly rejected their old alliance with Al Qaeda and no longer give them logistical or military support.

A NATO-led coalition spokesperson, however, said that NATO analysts did not necessarily accept the views of the Taliban detainees as valid.

"This document aggregates the comments of Taliban detainees in a captive environment without considering the validity of or motivation behind their reflections. Any conclusions drawn from this would be questionable at best," Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie E. Cummings said. (ANI)