Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents have demanded in negotiations with the US that prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay be transferred to Qatar, an Afghan government spokesperson said Friday. But President Hamid Karzai's government objects strongly to the move and wants the prisoners sent directly to Afghanistan, presidential spokesperson Aimal Faizi told a foreign news agency. The Taliban announced this week that they planned to set up a political office in Qatar, a move seen as a precursor to peace talks with Washington. At the same time, the hardline Islamists demanded the release of prisoners from the US military detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba -- but the statement did not specify where they should be sent. Karzai was told by the US about the demand that they should go to Qatar shortly before the Bonn conference on Afghanistan in December, Faizi said.