A U.S. State Department official held direct talks for the first time over the weekend with the main Syrian Kurdish political party as the United States builds a coalition against ISIL militants.

A U.S. State Department official held direct talks for the first time over the weekend with the main Syrian Kurdish political party as the United States builds a coalition against ISIL militants, a State Department official said on Thursday.

"We have for some time had conversations through intermediaries with the PYD (Kurdish Democratic Union Party). We have engaged over the course of just last weekend with the PYD," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a briefing.

A senior administration official said the talks, which involved a senior State Department official, took place in Paris.

The PYD has close ties to the PKK, a Turkish Kurdish party that waged a militant campaign and has threatened to abandon a peace process with Turkey in response to the current attack on the Syrian town of Kobani by militants of the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL).

The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.

Meanwhile, talks between the United States and Turkey on a possible Turkish role in combating the ISIL terrorist group went "very, very well," the Pentagon said on Thursday but declined to comment on what Turkey may actually do.

"The discussions went very, very well. They did center around looking for other ways and other contributions that Turkey can commit to this," Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters.