UN to relocate Afghanistan staff

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The UN says it is to temporarily relocate 600 of its "non-essential" foreign staff in Afghanistan.

This would allow measures to bolster security at UN accommodation. They would then return to resume work in the country, the statement added.

The move follows last week's attack when Taliban suicide bombers killed five UN workers and three Afghans when at a hostel in the capital, Kabul.

The UN has up to 1,300 international staff based in Afghanistan.

The dawn attack on the private Bekhtar guesthouse in the Shar-i-Naw district was the deadliest on the UN in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

'Minimum disruption'

The head of the UN's Afghan mission, Kai Eide, said some of the staff - mostly "non-frontline" personnel - would be moved within the country, some others outside.

In a Kabul news conference on Thursday, he denied it was an evacuation.

The UN said earlier in a statement: "Every effort will be made to minimise disruption to our activities while these additional security steps are being taken."

The temporary relocation of staff was likely to take three to four weeks, a UN spokesman in Kabul said.

The move would not affect key UN work such as aid delivery, as this was done by local Afghan staff, he added.

The 600 staff represent 12% of the total UN workforce - international and local staff - in Afghanistan, the BBC's Richard Coleburn in Kabul says.

The personnel being withdrawn come from all UN agencies and different Afghan cities.

UN employees tried to flee as three Taliban militants with suicide vests, grenades and machine guns stormed the hostel.

The three gunmen were shot dead.

The guesthouse - which was used by the UN and other international organisations - was gutted by fire.

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