Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud said his organization could be open to talks with Islamabad in a video released Friday.

Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud said his organization could be open to talks with Islamabad in a video released Friday, but poured scorn on the idea his men would give up their guns.

Mehsud, who has a $5 million US government bounty on his head, said the militant group would consider negotiations with the Pakistani government but only if it abandoned ties with Washington.

The tape emerged after a spate of high-profile attacks claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in recent weeks, including an assault on Peshawar airport and the assassination of senior provincial politician Bashir Bilour.

"If Pakistan is serious about negotiations it will have to give up US slavery. We will then be ready for negotiations," Mehsud said in the video.

"But if Pakistan decides to open talks while remaining US slaves the talks will not succeed because a slave can never take independent decisions."

He accused Islamabad of reneging on peace deals in the past under US pressure, but did not elaborate.

The Taliban has waged a sustained campaign of violence in Pakistan since 2007, claiming responsibility for some of the most high-profile attacks in the troubled country, including the October shooting of schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai.

The Pakistani government says more than 35,000 people have died due to bomb blasts and suicide attacks in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

But there has been a general decline in the number and severity of attacks since 2009, when the army fought major operations against Taliban in the northwestern district of Swat and the tribal district of South Waziristan.

Mehsud assumed leadership of the TTP after his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in August 2009.