UN experts to scrutinise Taleban embargo

The United Nations has sent a committee of experts to Pakistan to scrutinise the arms embargo against the ruling Taleban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The embargo, which was imposed in January, is one of a number of measures aimed at persuading the Taleban to hand over the Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden for trial.

The experts are meeting Pakistani and UN officials, and are expected to visit areas along the two-and-a-half-thousand kilometres long Pakistan-Afghan border.

The visit is the first move by the UN to look at how the embargo could be monitored. The experts will also make recommendations on how to scrutinise training camps for foreign militants inside Afghanistan, which the UN Security Council has ordered closed.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service