The United States will have its first formal meeting with the Taliban in Qatar on Thursday. Photo: CNN

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not offer up a timeline for the discussions.

News the meeting was moving forward followed a tumultuous day that saw questions raised about the peace process after an angry Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was pulling out of the peace talks with the Taliban and canceling security talks with the United States.

Karzai was angered over reports the Taliban appeared to be offering its new office in Doha, Qatar, up as an alternative government, going so far as to put up a sign proclaiming it the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan -- the name the Taliban used during their rule.

In a statement released by Karzai's office, the president said "foreign powers" were behind Tuesday's opening of the Taliban office.

Karzai appeared to renew earlier claims that the Taliban and Western officials want to destabilize Afghanistan.

Despite Karzai's decisions to pull back, the United States continues "close coordination" with the Afghan government on peace and security talks, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jenn Psaki said Wednesday.

Karzai's office said Taliban rhetoric about continuing to take the fight to Afghan and foreign fighters even as the group pursues a political solution was "completely in contradiction to the assurance that was given to Afghanistan by the United States of America."

He used similar justification for suspending security negotiations with the United States over the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan past the scheduled pullout next year.

In March, Karzai appeared to accuse the United States and the Taliban of collusion, saying violent attacks by the group "show that the Taliban are serving the foreigners and are not against them."

He later walked the remarks back, saying they were misinterpreted.

Speaking Wednesday in Berlin, U.S. President Barack Obama said he wasn't surprised by Karzai's response.

"We had anticipated that at the outset there were going to be some areas of friction, to put it mildly, in getting this thing off the ground," Obama said.

But he said that he believes Karzai remains committed to political reconciliation, and that he needs to be.

"We don't expect that it will be easy," Obama told reporters at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "But we do think ultimately we're going to need to see Afghans talking to Afghans about how they can move forward and end the cycle of violence so they can start actually building their country."

The Taliban opened the Doha office with a promise to renounce international terrorism and commit to peace negotiations, conditions the United States had set before it would support establishing the office as part of peace talks.

But a Taliban spokesman also said the group would continue its military campaign, a promise soon followed by the group's claim of responsibility for the death of four U.S. troops.

Psaki said the name of the Taliban office came as a surprise to U.S. officials and that Qatari officials took the name off the office door Wednesday, replacing it with the more neutral "Political Office of the Afghan Taliban."

Karzai's office said Wednesday that his administration wants peace with the Taliban.

"But the messages of continuation of fighting which were sent out during the opening of the Taliban office in Qatar are completely in contradiction with the peace-wanting spirit of the government of Afghanistan," Karzai said.

He said the High Peace Council would not take part in the talks with the Taliban in Doha "until the process is completely left to Afghans."

Karzai earlier Wednesday suspended talks with the United States over maintaining a troop presence in Afghanistan to help train Afghan forces past the scheduled 2014 pullout date for Western troops.

The agreement could provide the basis for any future NATO role in Afghanistan.

Karzai's decision to suspend those talks came a day after NATO-led troops transferred security responsibility to Afghan forces.

The Afghan government suspended the talks "in view of the contradiction between acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the Peace Process," it said in a statement.