Afghan president Hamid Karzai is planning to offer Taliban fighters money and jobs to lure them back to normal life.
The programme will be funded by the international community, the BBC reported Mr Karzai as saying.
Senior Afghan Taliban leaders are not likely to agree to give up their insurgency until they see the momentum shift in favour of the government and international forces, US defence secretary Robert Gates said today.
"Reconciliation will come slowly," Mr Gates told reporters during a trip to neighbouring Pakistan. "You will begin to see it, I suspect, on the part of local commanders and others in Afghanistan itself first."
The United States and Britain will back the proposal at a conference on Afghanistan's future to be held in London on January 28th.
Reconciliation with Taliban leaders and reintegration of lower-level fighters "has to be done in the terms set by the Afghan government," Mr Gates said. Terms would include adhering to the Afghan constitution, acknowledging the government as the sole military power in the country with no more warlords and participating in elections, he said.
As the United States escalates its fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the Obama administration has been increasing pressure on Mr Karzai to fight corruption.
The Afghan president will go into the London conference without a full cabinet in place after parliament twice rejected nominees that lawmakers deemed to be inexperienced or corrupt.
The United States is also urging neighbouring Pakistan to extend its offensive against militants to include groups attacking international forces in Afghanistan.