The Taliban said Thursday it had suspended contacts with the United States in Qatar, just days after an American shooting spree left 16 Afghans dead, dealing a blow to hopes of a peace process.

"It was due to their alternating and ever-changing position that the Islamic Emirate was compelled to suspend all dialogue with the Americans," a statement posted on the Taliban website said, making no mention of Sunday's murders.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are backing "armed terrorist gangs" operating in Syria and so are responsible for the bloodshed in the country, Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud told Agence France Presse on Monday.

"Some of the countries backing armed terrorist gangs, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are accomplices to the terrorism targeting the Syrian people ... and bear responsibility for the bloodletting," he said.

U.N.-Arab League peace envoy on Syria, Kofi Annan, held talks with top Qatari officials on Monday after a weekend trip to Damascus where he urged leaders to end the bloodshed there, the official Qatari news agency reported.

Annan, who arrived in Doha on Sunday, met with the emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to "review the developments in Syria," according to a statement released by the QNA news agency.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi held a meeting on Monday with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani during a pastoral visit to the Gulf State.

The patriarch also held a meeting with Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani at the Emiri Diwan, the National News Agency reported.

Five Taliban Guantanamo detainees have agreed to be transferred to Qatar, and Kabul has dropped its opposition to the move as it seeks to boost peace efforts, an Afghan government spokesman said Sunday.

The inmates told a visiting Afghan delegation they were willing to be transferred to the Middle East state, and it was now up to the U.S. whether they were freed, said Aimal Faizi, spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Arab and Russian foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Saturday called for an end to the violence in Syria "whatever its source," as they struggled try to find common ground on ways to resolve the deadly conflict.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after a meeting at the Arab League headquarters that he and his Arab counterparts want "an end to the violence whatever its source."

Arab and Russian foreign ministers met in Cairo on Saturday over Syria, amid splits over how to move forward to resolve a crisis that has left thousands dead in a year.

The meetings come as the West and the Arab world pile pressure on President Bashar Assad's regime to end a year-old uprising spiraling into all-out civil war.

Russia on Saturday said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made clear to the U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria Kofi Annan that Moscow is opposed to "crude interference" from the outside into Syrian internal affairs.

"A particular emphasis was placed on the inadmissibility of trampling on international legal norms, including through crude interference in Syria's internal affairs," the foreign ministry said after a meeting earlier between Lavrov and Annan in Cairo.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea noted on Sunday that the longer the Syrian crisis lasts, the greater the chances of extremists coming to power should the current regime be overthrown.

He said: “Those fearing the rise of extremists should quickly end the Syrian crisis.”

President Michel Suleiman is expected to travel to Qatar on Sunday to attend the International Conference on Telecommunications.

Official sources told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Sunday that the president may hold talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani during his visit.