Trump says Afghanistan talks 'proceeding well'

Negotiations in Afghanistan are going well, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday after US officials earlier this week said there had been significant progress in talks to end 17 years of war in the country.

Talks "are proceeding well," Trump wrote on Twitter. He did not address any possible peace accord with the Taliban or the presence of US troops in Afghanistan.

On Monday, US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told the New York Times that the United States and the insurgent group had sketched the outlines of an eventual peace deal. Analysts, however, said there was no sign that the Taliban had agreed to US demands.

A US State Department spokesman said this week the talks had been "positive" but that no agreement had been reached.

The Trump administration has moved toward withdrawals of US forces after years of overseas deployments. A US official said last month that Trump planned to withdraw more than 5,000 of the 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan.

But Trump's fellow Republican US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday offered legislation urging the United States to keep troops in Afghanistan as well as Syria, although it was uncertain whether it would become law