Three Western diplomats began a second frustrating day in Kabul today, saying they would continue pushing Afghanistan's ruling Taliban for access to eight foreign aid workers detained for promoting Christianity.
Envoys from Germany, Australia and the United States flew to the Afghan capital from neighbouring Pakistan yesterday, but so far have only held a meeting with the Taliban's foreign ministry protocol chief.
Requests to meet their nationals - four Germans, two Australians and two Americans, who were arrested with 16 Afghans almost two weeks ago - have so far been refused.
They have also been denied the opportunity for talks with higher-level Taliban officials, diplomatic sources said.
"We expect to have another meeting ... to find a solution to this case and still wait for the request which we have made in this regard," Helmut Landes, the German diplomat in Kabul, told Reuterslate last night.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted Taliban protocol chief Abdul Ghafour Afghani as saying that there was no change in the Taliban's refusal to allow the diplomats to meet the detainees, and no further meetings were scheduled.
"All I can say is that there is no change in our stance on this issue," AIP quoted Afghani as saying from Kabul.
Diplomats say privately that the Taliban - recognised as the Afghan government by just three countries - do not seem to acknowledge international norms on consular access.
AIP added that Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil had left Kabul for Kandahar, 460 km (290 miles) to the southwest and the movement's seat of power and home to supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who has the final say on the case.