Pakistan government mediators are demanding a ceasefire from the Taliban before resuming peace talks, with another two soldiers killed in separate attacks.
A faction of the insurgent group announced on Sunday they had killed 23 kidnapped soldiers, prompting condemnation from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the cancellation of scheduled peace talks on Monday.
Following a meeting on Tuesday in Islamabad, the government negotiators briefed the prime minister and said they had received a "discouraging response" since talks were announced on January 29.
"The prime minister was told that the committee was unable to carry forward the dialogue process in the absence of an announcement by the Taliban ceasing violent activities and then implementing the decision," a statement said.
Militants killed an army major near the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday, and a soldier died in a separate border post attack overnight in lawless South Waziristan, security officials said.
Excluding the kidnapped soldiers, some 60 people have died in Islamist-linked violence since Prime Minister Sharif announced the peace talks on January 29.
A senior Taliban negotiator told AFP the militant group was working towards a ceasefire which might have been agreed at Monday's cancelled meeting.
"The issue was on top of Monday's meeting between the two committees, which was called off by government negotiators," Professor Muhammad Ibrahim said.
"There was a strong possibility that we could have agreed on a ceasefire had the meeting taken place," Ibrahim added.
He said he had spoken to senior Taliban commander Azam Tariq and they "are making efforts for resumption of the stalled talks".
