KABUL - The US plans to revive talks with the Taliban to secure the freedom of a captive American soldier in exchange for the release of five Guantanamo Bay prisoners, a media report said.

The Obama administration decided to “resume talks with the Taliban and sweeten an offer to trade Taliban prisoners” for Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, The Washington Post reported.

It said the mid-January decision would confine any new talks to the prisoner swap, without any attempt at wider engagement with the Taliban on a host of issues related to Afghanistan’s future.

If the plan succeeds, the US will simultaneously free the five Taliban leaders to protective custody in Qatar in exchange for the release of Bergdahl, who was captured in 2009 by the Haqqani network.

“The renewed offer has not been formally made, and no State Department or other officials have immediate plans to travel to Doha, where any contact facilitated by the Qatari government would take place,” the Post said.

Bergdahl, an army infantryman assigned to a unit from Alaska, was taken captive after walking off his base in the eastern province of Paktika and the Taliban offered to free him in exchange for 21 Afghan prisoners. (Pajhwok)