Washington, Sept 8: Pakistan is reluctant to allow senior Taliban leaders to travel to Afghanistan for reconciliation talks, raising concerns that Islamabad is not helping enough to resolve the conflict, a US newspaper has said.

"Those who are willing to talk should be given the opportunity," US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker told USA Today in a phone interview.

"Those who are determined to fight should have actions taken against them that should prevent them from doing so," he added.

The paper said that according to analysts, Pakistan is attempting to play both sides in the conflict, hedging its bets in the event the Taliban remains following the American troops pullout from the region.

"The Pakistanis still see the Taliban as their best leverage in Afghanistan. "They''re on the fence right now," Lisa Curtis, an analyst at The Heritage Foundation, was quoted as saying.

The US Ambassador to Afghanistan acknowledged that Pakistan might be concerned that the US may abandon the region, leaving it with a need to have ties with the Taliban.

He pointed out that facilitating peace talks with the Taliban is "in their interests as well as Afghanistan''s."

"It''s not like they''re not cooperating at all," the paper quoted Crocker, as saying of Pakistan. (ANI)