PETER LLOYD: The United States is still scrambling to keep planned peace talks with the Taliban on track amid renewed tensions with the Karzai administration in Kabul.

After 18 months of secret negotiations via third countries, the Taliban opened an office in the Gulf state of Qatar in a bid to start what it called, "dialogue with the world."

The US then announced that it hoped to meet the insurgents this week to launch a peace process.

But then, a new twist. Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, announced Afghanistan was boycotting the talks and demanded the US stop the talks before they even started.

I asked South Asia correspondent Michael Edwards why the Afghan leader is so angry.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: He's furious with the United States for dealing directly with the Taliban and he's also incensed the Taliban has used the term "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" for its offices in Doha and used the flag that the Taliban used during its time in power in Kabul.

So, at this point in time, the secretary of state, John Kerry, is desperately trying to get president Karzai back on track.

PETER LLOYD: How much is his anger being fuelled by the fact that the Americans appeared to give away so many red line, should we say, deal-breaker moments with the Taliban in these talks.

For example, the recognition of the government, the constitution - things like that - surrendering violence.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Absolutely. I mean it plays out very badly for him, with his audience in Afghanistan. He's worried that the Taliban is effectively setting itself up as a government in exile and he's seeing evidence of that with the Americans dealing with them directly.

So, it puts him in a very weakened position.

Now, president Karzai is renowned for his erratic behaviour, if we could put it that way, but in this regard, his actions here are seen as quite justified in the sense that he has to make a stand here and take a tough line on the fact that the United States is or seems to be willing to deal with the Taliban at the expense of his administration.

PETER LLOYD: It seems an extraordinary breakdown in communications. Didn't the Americans tell Karzai before they announced it that these were the terms and conditions of these talks?

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Well it doesn't appear so, because he, president Karzai, came out soon after the official handover of security in Afghanistan from Western forces and said he supports the Taliban's office and he'll be sending his high peace counsel to Doha to talk to the Taliban.

Then, after that, president Obama said the United States too would talk to the Taliban. It didn't take long for the ructions to start taking place.

PETER LLOYD: A day ago, we were talking about this like it was a game changer. Today, it looks more like a train wreck. Is there any way to avoid this?

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Well, there are indications coming out of Kabul that president Karzai's reconsidering his suspension of the bilateral talks with the United States, and that John Kerry's negotiations, his phone calls with president Karzai are having some effect.

PETER LLOYD: Is it clear at all what the Americans have to walk back in order to satisfy Hamid Karzai and get him back at the table?

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Well, one of the things that's happened already is that the Qatari government, obviously with some pressure from the United States, has got the Taliban to take down its sign saying it's the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan office, well effectively saying it's the Taliban embassy in Qatar and to take down the Taliban flag.

Now, that seems to have been a big problem in the mind of president Karzai and got him really upset. So that problem's out of the way. So that might be one aspect of the problem here that has been solved, and perhaps from now, John Kerry does have some leverage to get Hamid Karzai to be more cooperative.

PETER LLOYD: That's Michael Edwards from the New Delhi bureau.