The Taliban have proposed a three-month ceasefire in Afghanistan in return for the release of 7,000 captured fighters, a government official said, writes BBC.

Nader Nadery, an Afghan government negotiator, described the proposal as a “big demand”. The government has so far not said how it will react.

Clashes between the government and the Taliban have intensified since US troops began to withdraw from the country.

The Taliban recently claimed their fighters had retaken 85% of territory in Afghanistan - a figure impossible to independently verify and disputed by the government. Other estimates say the Taliban controls more than a third of Afghanistan"s 400 districts.

Last year 5,000 Taliban prisoners were released and it is believed that many of them returned to the battlefield, worsening violence in the country.