KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban militants and other armed anti-U.S. groups will continue their violent opposition to Afghan and American-led forces until a genuine dialogue is held to solve Afghanistan's problems, the former hard-line regime's ambassador to Pakistan said.

But Afghan and U.S. officials today rejected the idea of dealing with extremists who have blood on their hands, stressing the military option was the only way to bring them to justice.

Abdul Salam Zaeef, who returned to Afghanistan in late 2005 after spending more than three years held at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, also called for fair trials to be afforded to the roughly 500 people being held at the Cuba-based facility.

During recent months, Afghanistan has witnessed an increase in bombings and shootings targeting U.S.-led coalition troops and Afghan forces across the country, particularly inside former Taliban strongholds in the south.

To try to counter the bloodshed, more than 9,000 NATO-led forces will be deploying across volatile southern provinces like Kandahar and Helmand by the end of July. At least 18,000 U.S. soldiers are currently in Afghanistan.

But Zaeef, who says he is keeping to himself nowadays after becoming "fed up" with his country's continued bloodshed, doubted whether continued military action against Afghanistan's "opposition groups" will lead to an end of the violence.

"I think the problem (of violence) is increasing and people have to decide whether they will solve it through use of power or negotiation. Afghanistan needs reconciliation but I don't think the Americans want to negotiate," he told the AP.

U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins ruled out coalition forces entering into dialogue with insurgents. He said the United States was instead supporting Afghanistan's legitimate government and the building of a new security force.

Khaleeq Ahmed, spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said his government has formed a peace and reconciliation commission that has encouraged more than 1,000 ex-Taliban members to embrace the new constitution and government and reject violence.

"But there are exceptions," Ahmed said. "There are those who have burned schools and killed doctors, nurses and many other innocent Afghans."

In January, Karzai told the AP in an interview that Taliban leader Mullah Omar should "get in touch" if he wants to talk peace. A statement purportedly issued by Omar rejected the offer and warned the Taliban would increase attacks.

Zaeef, a soft-spoken former Taliban envoy fluent in Arabic and English as well as his native Pashto language, was arrested in January 2002 and handed over to U.S. authorities. He refused to cooperate with the tribunal at Guantanamo, where he said interrogators had accused him of being linked to the 2000 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen and the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.