The Taliban have released a video of a visibly-shaken captive US soldier who was snatched by the Islamist militants in Afghanistan late last month, officials and witnesses said yesterday.

In the 28-minute clip posted online at the weekend, the soldier, who went missing in Afghanistan on June 30, sits on the floor in traditional pale grey Afghan clothing and pleads for US troops to leave the war-torn nation.

The defence department in Washington yesterday said the man was 23-year-old Bowe R. Bergdahl from Idaho.

A US military spokesman in Kabul had earlier confirmed that the man in the video was the same soldier who went missing from his base in southeastern Paktika province, and condemned the video as "propaganda".

The shaven-headed young man, who sports a fledgling beard and appears nervous and frightened, answers questions in English, occasionally choking back sobs as he tells his captors he is scared and wants to see his family.

"I was captured outside the base camp. I was behind a patrol, lagging behind the patrol and I was captured," Mr Bergdahl, who says the date is July 14, tells an unseen captor.

Questioned about the US-led invasion that toppled the hardline Taliban government in 2001, he replies: "Since I've been here and I've seen how these people live and function, we have indeed invaded an independent state."

Eating food and drinking green tea as he sits in front of a table, Mr Bergdahl says the Taliban insurgents are "really treating me like a guest", but becomes distraught and emotional when talking about his family.

"I'm afraid that I may never see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them again that I love them, I'll never be able to hug them," he says.