Lubbers finishes talks with the Taleban

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, has left the Taleban headquarters in the southern Afghan town of Kandahar without the temporary ceasefire he was seeking.

The UN's top refugee official is reported to have said the governor of southern Kandahar, Mullah Mohammed Hasan, promised to take his appeal for a truce to the Taleban's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Mr Lubbers wants both sides in the conflict to lay down their weapons to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid to be distributed.

He is touring Afghanistan to assess what the UN says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with hundreds-of-thousands of Afghans fleeing their homes because of drought and the continuing civil war. In discussions with the Taleban's southern governor, Mr Lubbers also focused on the Taleban's programme to end poppy and opium production.

He is due to see the Taleban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, and the opposition leader, Ahmed Shah Massood, on Wednesday.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service