BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Taleban denies threat to neighbours

The Taleban administration in Afghanistan says it has no territorial claim on any of its Central Asian neighbours.

A spokesman in Kabul told the BBC the Taleban had no intention of interfering in their internal affairs.

He was responding to a statement on Friday by the presidents of four Central Asian states which said that the situation in Afghanistan was the main threat to security in the region.

The statement, at the end of a summit of the Central Asian states, said that Afghanistan had become a breeding ground of fanaticism and extremism.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service