Taliban officials rarely travel abroad for public meetings, and Mujahed didn't say how Hanif, an ethnic Tajik from Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province, made the trip to Japan. Although a senior member of the Taliban and a member of the movement's political committee, Hanif is not on any wanted list.

The Afghan government was represented by Mohammed Masoon Stanikzai, a senior member of the government's High Peace Council, which is responsible for talks with the insurgency.

Ansari said the conference was not intended to find a peace settlement but to air ideas and differences.

"In this third Doshisha conference all the parties presented their ideas and agendas but there were no concrete agreements," he said.

Karzai and U.S. officials are trying to draw the Taliban back to negotiations toward a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Pashtun-based insurgency that would end a war that American commanders have said cannot be won with military power alone.