U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed Sunday that the United States is in "preliminary" contact with Taliban militants for peace talks in Afghanistan.

"There's been outreach on the -- on the part of a number of countries, including the United States," the outgoing secretary said on CNN's "State of the Union" program. "I would say that these contacts are very preliminary at this point."

The secretary's remarks come one day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the United States was in contact with the Taliban.

"Peace talks are going on with the Taliban. The foreign military and especially the United States itself is going ahead with these negotiations," Karzai said in a speech in Kabul.

Gates, who is to retire at the end of this month, stressed that it's important to find the right person who can really represent Taliban for the peace talks, so that it will not "end up having a conversation at some point with somebody who is basically a freelancer."

The Obama administration is close to making a decision on the pace of U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Obama planned to start withdrawing troops from the war-torn country in July, with the goal of handing major security responsibility to the Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

However, there seem to be still huge differences in Washington as to how many troops will be ordered back home at the first phase of military drawdown.

Obama said the drawdown will be "significant," which was endorsed by Gates' successor Leon Panetta. But Gates and several military commanders insisted the withdrawal should be "modest," warning that a precipitous withdrawal might undermine the security gains that coalition troops have already achieved.

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