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A US delegation will travel to meet with "senior Taliban representatives from Kabul" in Doha, Qatar, this weekend, a State Department official said Friday -- the first such meeting since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of August, CNN reported. 

"This meeting is a continuation of the pragmatic engagements with the Taliban on issues of US vital national interest," the official told CNN.

The meeting comes as the US government continues efforts to bring American citizens and permanent residents and vulnerable Afghans out of the country nearly six weeks after the rushed and chaotic US military evacuation and withdrawal came to an end, and as it eyes over-the-horizon capabilities to prevent a resurgence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

The State Department official said that "the continued safe passage out of Afghanistan of US and other foreign nationals and Afghans to whom we have a special commitment who seek to leave the country" is among the key priorities for the meeting, which was first reported by Reuters.

In the Doha meeting, the US will also prioritize "holding the Taliban to its commitment not to allow terrorists to use Afghan soil to threaten the security of the United States or its allies," the official said.