The newspaper quoted unnamed Afghan and Arab sources who believe the Taliban representatives are authorised to speak for the Pakistan-based Quetta Shura and its leader, Mohammad Omar.
Talks are only in the preliminary stages, according to the Post following inconclusive meetings hosted by Saudi Arabia that ended more than a year ago.
President Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer declined to confirm or deny the report.
Peace overture: President Hamid Karzai
Training: An Afghan serviceman is taken through a replica village alongside a British soldier
Speaking in Kabul, he said: 'There were contacts in the past and may now be direct or indirect ones. There have been regular contacts over the past two years.There haven't been any substantive talks, there have been contacts only.'
Fighting has dragged on for nine years since U.S. forces led an invasion in 2001 to topple the Taliban regime who harboured the al Qaeda network responsible for the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers.
'They (the Taliban) are very, very serious about finding a way out,' one source close to the talks said.
Omar's representatives have insisted in the past that negotiations were impossible until foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan.
But the Post said the Quetta Shura has begun to discuss a deal that would include participation of some Taliban figures in the Karzai government and the withdrawal of U.S. and Nato troops on an agreed timeline.
The Quetta Shura is the remains of the Afghan Taliban government overthrown and driven into Pakistan by the invasion.
The talks did not involve the Haqqani network, based mainly in Pakistan's North Waziristan, which has been the target of U.S. drone attacks.
Earlier this week, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said a broad Taliban shift toward reconciliation with the Afghan government was unlikely for now.
He said: 'I think it is too soon to suggest that there is.a wider movement afoot, that the tide is turning in terms of re-integration and reconciliation.'
President Karzai launched an effort this year to reach out to elements of the Taliban that might be willing to deal with the government, renounce violence and accept the new constitution.
He has formed a 70-member peace council in recent weeks to work toward negotiations.
General David Petraeus, the head of U.S. and the Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, has acknowledged contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
But he added it was premature to say whether those Taliban were willing to accept Karzai's terms for pursuing reconciliation.
Last week, a former senior UN official spoke of his concern that the Taliban has infiltrated the Afghan police and army.
Former executive director of the UN's Office of Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan, Antonio Maria Costa said Taliban sleeper cells had been set up inside the security forces.
According to Dr Costa the Taliban have already carried out a number of attacks and have scheduled further hits on Nato-led troops.
Confiscated: Afghan police officers stand near weapons collected after private security firms in Kabul were disbanded
Under guard: A militant is taken away by Afghan security forces which are feared to have been infiltrated by the Taliban
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