ISLAMABAD — Pakistan made its first public appeal today for the Taliban to participate in peace talks with the Afghan government, a potentially significant move given Islamabad’s perceived influence over the militants.

The Pakistani prime minister was responding to a request made earlier this week by Afghanistan’s president for Islamabad to support the peace process. Kabul wants Pakistan to push Taliban leaders believed to be based on its soil, including chief Mullah Omar, to make peace.

There are signs that momentum for peace talks has been growing, especially with the Taliban move to set up a political office in the tiny Gulf state of Qatar. But the group has said it would prefer to negotiate with the United States, which has 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, rather than the Afghan government.

This sentiment has reportedly triggered concern in Afghanistan and Pakistan that the neighboring nations could be sidelined in peace talks. Both nations are likely doing all they can to remain central to the process.

“I would like to appeal to the Taliban leadership as well as to all other Afghan groups, including Hizb-e-Islami, to participate in an intra-Afghan process for national reconciliation and peace,” Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.

Pakistan helped the Taliban seize power in Afghanistan in the 1990s, but the group has always been difficult to control and there is a significant amount of distrust in the relationship.

The Afghan government has long accused Pakistan of providing sanctuary for the Taliban.