Representives in Paris of the Taleban administration in Afghanistan say a high-ranking delegation from Kabul is due to arrive later this week, for talks with the French government.

The Taleban say the delegation will be led by a deputy foreign minister, Abdol Rahman Zahed.

There are no details so far of who they'll be seeing or what they'll be talking about.

The planned visit has been criticised by a French Green Party faction, Generation Ecologie, which called on the government to show towards the Taleban the same disapproval as towards the far-right Freedom Party in Austria.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service