WASHINGTON - Amid reports that US, in a policy reversal, is considering talks with some elements of the Taliban, the Bush administration said Tuesday it is carrying out a strategic review of its policy in Afghanistan. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino also said that the United States supports Afghanistan's reconciliation process at dealing with the escalating insurgency in the strife-torn country. But she declined to talk about any aspect of the policy review, while saying that the situation in Afghanistan was of "great concern" to the U.S. Closely questioned about the move to talk to some elements of the Taliban, as reported in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, she said, "We're all aware of the need for the people of Afghanistan to reconcile. We saw that need in Iraq as well." "There are different ways to try to do that. If there was outreach to the Taliban, you know, we remain skeptical that there are some Taliban that would actually renounce violence and renounce extremism and work for the greater good of Afghanistan. "So we'll let the Afghanis come forward with their ideas. We have our strategic review under way as well," Ms. Perino added. Asked whether the decision was an acknowledgment that the US policy was not working well, the press secretary said, "We have made progress in Afghanistan in a lot of different places with that -- the violence that has increased in the east and the south of the country is of -- is a great concern to us, and that's one of the reasons that we're doing the review here and that we're working with our NATO partners to figure out the best way to position the best troops and make sure that we can beat back the Taliban... "In Afghanistan we have some work to do, and we've seen violence go up. We've seen our soldiers increasingly at risk, and we want to do everything we can to protect them and to protect the people of Afghanistan too." At the State Department briefing, questions about the plans to hold talks with the Taliban were also raised, especially whether the U.S. supported the Taliban being part of Afghan reconciliation process. "That is going to be up to the Afghans," spokesman Robert Wood said. "They have laid out their criteria. And as I said, renouncing violence and renouncing ties to al Qaeda, those are two criteria that the Afghans themselves have laid out, as I said. So -- and we would support -- we support that process." Asked whether the U.S. was backing talks between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban hosted by Saudi Arabia in Makkah during Ramadan, the spokesman said, "(W)e support Afghanistan's reconciliation program. And the Afghans themselves have laid out criteria that they believe have to form the basis of any kind of reconciliation process; basically, renouncing violence, renouncing ties to al Qaeda, and pledging allegiance to the Afghan constitution. So that's what the Afghans have set themselves, and we obviously support that."