Envoys from the United States, Germany, Iran and Italy held a meeting here Friday with the UN's chief envoy for Afghanistan to review the situation in the central Asian country, UN officials said.
Assistant UN Secretary-General Francesc Vendrell declined to comment on the outcome of the meeting, which had been previously unscheduled and which was held in a framework known as the Geneva Initiative.
The Initiative last met on September 9, two days before the attacks in the United States.
Earlier, spokeswoman Marie Heuze said the "private consulations" would carry on into Saturday, but UN officials said the envoys had decided to call off the rest of the meeting.
"These were regular consultations among some states and non-belligerent Afghans who are outside Afghanistan," a UN source told AFP.
However, no Afghans were said to have taken part in Friday's meeting, which was held in a guarded room at the UN's European headquarters in Geneva.
"The situation in Afghanistan has been completely turned upside down since the initiative was launched, obviously," the source added, but declined to comment any further on the content or aim of the meeting.
Sources said the envoys from the United States, Germany, Iran and Italy were specialists on the region who had flown into Geneva.
Before the latest Afghan crisis, Vendrell was trying to secure the release of eight western aid workers -- four Americans, two Germans and two Australians -- who were arrested by the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan on charges of propagating christianity -- GENEVA (AFP)
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