Global Policy Forum

The Taleban administration's foreign minister in Afghanistan, Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel, has appealed to three members of the UN Security Council to oppose harsher sanctions against Kabul when the issue is debated in the next few days. Mr Mutawakel called on France, Britain and China to support his case.

Referring to the other two permanent members of the council, Russia and the United States, he said that Moscow was a natural enemy of the Afghans, while the US always wanted, as he put it, to have an enemy to use for its own purposes.

Mr Mutawakel specifically mentioned the Saudi exile, Osama bin Laden, who the Americans say was involved in two bomb attacks on American embassies in East Africa in 1998, in which more than 200 were killed. The Americans say he is living in Afghanistan.

Correspondents say that possible new sanctions against Afghanistan may include an arms embargo, and restrictions on Taleban officials travelling abroad. The Taleban administration is recognised only by Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The ousted government of Burhanuddin Rabbani still holds the Afghan seat at the UN.