KABUL - Pakistan has released four more Afghan Taliban prisoners, including a former justice minister, said a Pakistani government official on Monday, in another sign that Islamabad is supporting efforts to start formal peace talks with the militant group.

This comes as Afghan officials have been in talks with Pakistani counterparts to try to free certain Taliban prisoners in order to push forward a peace process.

"Four Taliban prisoners have been released," the Pakistani official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"They include former Taliban justice minister Nooruddin Turabi and ex-governor of Helmand province, Abdul Bari," the official added.

Two sources close to the Afghan Taliban in northwestern Pakistan confirmed that four prisoners had been released but said they did not include Pakistan's most high-profile Taliban detainee, former deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Baradar was captured in 2010 and Pakistani officials have said in the past that no decision has been taken for his release.

NATO troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and Kabul hopes the freed Taliban figures can help bring the militants into formal peace talks.

Support from Pakistan, which backed the 1996-2001 Taliban regime in Kabul, is seen as crucial to peace in Afghanistan after NATO's departure. (Tolo News)