KABUL (AFP) - US envoy James Dobbins on Monday said Washington was outraged at how the Taleban opened an office in Qatar that was intended as a first step towards a peace deal in Afghanistan.

"The use of the Islamic Emirate title... (and) the symbols, signs and nomenclature were incompatible with what had been understood to be the arrangement," he told reporters in Kabul.

"We were outraged ourselves because it was inconsistent with the assurances we had been given."