Islamabad  - A Taliban spokesman was arrested in the Swat Valley, where troops have spent five months fighting Islamist insurgents, Pakistan's military said Friday.

Muslim Khan was captured with four colleagues, including key militant commander Mehmood Khan, the Geo news channel reported, citing army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.

Muslim Khan had a bounty of 10 million rupees (122,000 US dollars) on his head for involvement in terrorist activities. The same reward was offered by the government for information about Mehmood Khan.

The military did not immediately disclose further details of the arrests, but the Taliban alleged that all five militants, who were members of the Taliban shura, or advisory council, were lured into peace talks in Islamabad, where they were taken into custody by security officials.

The English-language newspaper The News cited a Taliban deputy spokesman identified only as Salman in a story published Friday that the peace talks were mediated through a person named Kamal Khan, who is a resident of Swat but settled in the United States and is a major ranking officer in Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence.

After guarantees from military authorities, the five-member Taliban delegation was sent to Islamabad to hold talks with the Pakistan Army a week ago.

According to Salman, the Taliban were in regular contact with the five militant leaders for the first five days but started to suspect three days ago that the negotiators had been arrested.

Abbas denied the Taliban claim that Muslim Khan and other rebel leaders were arrested during peace talks. Any negotiations with the Taliban are out of the question, he told Geo.

The capture of Muslim Khan, who is a close aid of the Taliban chief in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, is considered a major success in the government's offensive against militants in Swat. However, Fazlullah remains at large.

The government said its troops have killed nearly 2,000 rebels and regained control over much of the Swat Valley, which is about 140 kilometres north-west of Islamabad. (dpa)