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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday harshly condemned the alleged desecration by U.S. Marines of the corpses of Taliban fighters, after a video showing the actions went viral on a number of Internet sites this week. The Pentagon chief said he'd ordered a full investigation into the alleged incident; American officials fear that the footage may imperil sensitive diplomatic initiatives seeking to advance negotiations with the Taliban.

"I have seen the footage, and I find the behavior depicted in it utterly deplorable," Panetta said in a press statement sent to Yahoo News Thursday. "I condemn it in the strongest possible terms."

The video-which Pentagon officials had not yet definitively authenticated--appears to show four American Marines urinating on the corpses of three Taliban fighters. (Due to its graphic content, Yahoo has posted an edited version of the posted video from ABC News, which you can see above.)

"Have a nice day, buddy,' one of the alleged U.S. Marines said on the video.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday "condemned the video, describing the men's actions as 'inhuman' and calling for an investigation," Reuters reported.

Panetta called Karzai Thursday to convey his horror at the alleged incident and promise a full investigation, Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

Panetta told Karzai "that the conduct depicted in the footage is utterly deplorable, and that it does not reflect the standards or values American troops are sworn to uphold," Little told journalists in a press readout of the call Thursday.  "The Secretary also noted in the conversation that he has ordered that the video be immediately and fully investigated."

Panetta ordered the Marine Corps and the top U.S  commander in Afghanistan Gen. John Allen to launch an immediate and full investigation of the alleged incident, which will hold the responsible parties accountable for their conduct.

So far at least, Taliban officials indicated the Marine video controversy wouldn't derail plans for negotiations between the Taliban and American-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

"We know that our country is occupied," a Taliban spokesman said in a Reuters report Thursday. "This is not a political process, so the video will not harm our talks and prisoner exchange because they are at the preliminary stage."

The video has surfaced at a sensitive moment in U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. American envoys have stepped up their push to broker negotiations that include the Afghan insurgents. Such an agreement would be aimed at bringing greater political stability to Afghanistan--and thereby allow for the eventual drawdown of U.S.-led international forces from the country.

Among the possible provisions in the latest diplomatic push are plans for the Taliban to open a quasi-embassy in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The United States is also reportedly considering the possible extradition to Afghanistan of five Taliban prisoners now held at the U.S.military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as a possible confidence building measure.

"A breakthrough would mark a milestone for the Obama administration, struggling to secure a modicum of stability in Afghanistan as it presses ahead with its gradual withdrawal from a long and costly war," Reuters writes.

But a new U.S. intelligence assessment raises doubts about the prospects for success of any negotiations with the Taliban. According to a report Wednesday by McClatchy News' Jonathan Landay and Nancy Youssef, the new U.S. National Intelligence Estimate assesses that the Afghan insurgents have not abandoned their aspirations for "reclaiming power and reimposing harsh Islamic rule" in  Afghanistan, Landay and Youssef write.