The fate of two massive historic Buddha statues in Afghanistan was unclear on today, as the ruling Taliban brushed off an international outcry over their threatened destruction.
"We have not begun destroying them yet, but we have prepared for it and that can take place any time," a Taliban source told Reuters. The Taliban have branded numerous statues in Afghanistan as un-Islamic and ordered their destruction.
Other Taliban officials in the Afghan capital Kabul said piece-by-piece demolition of the soaring statues of Buddha in Bamiyan - the tallest in the world and Afghanistan's best known archaeological treasures - was already under way.
There was no immediate way of independently confirming the fate of the two statues because Bamiyan in central Afghanistan is about a two-day drive from Kabul and the Taliban were not allowing any observers to go to the area.
The two Buddhas, towering 175 feet (53 metres) and 120 feet (36.5 metres) high in cliffside sandstone niches, are the first known examples of the massive Buddha images that spread through Asia.
Protests over their destruction have come from far and near.
The world's leading industrialised nations, meeting for an environmental conference in the Italian city of Trieste, expressed shock over the Taliban plan and urged them not to go ahead with their deeply tragic decision .
"Mindful that the diversity of natural and human systems is at the core of sustainable development, we express dismay and shock at reports of the edict of the Taliban leadership ordering the destruction of all statues and shrines in Afghanistan," the Group of Eight said in a statement.
An envoy of the Paris-based UN cultural agency UNESCO, Pierre Lafrance, said he had had a very long discussion with Afghan Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil in Kabul today. He told CNN he hoped to meet the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, in a few days after the Muslim Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice).
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted Mr Muttawakil as having told Lafrance the decision to destroy the statues was unlikely to be reversed.
"I assured him that I will give his message to the Taliban leadership but I also told him that I see no indication that the decision to destroy the idols would be changed," Mr Muttawakil said.
"This is an issue of Shariah (Islamic law) and a religious decree. To change that is beyond the power of anyone," AIP quoted him as telling Lafrance.
The European Union presidency, currently held by Sweden, described the destruction of the statues as an act of cultural barbarism and religious intolerance.
China's state-run Buddhist Association called for an immediate halt to the destruction of the two giant Buddhas, Xinhua news agency reported.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said the destruction of Buddhist statues in Afghanistan was senseless and an insult to all religions, local news agencies reported.
"Those who are ruling Afghanistan are not Muslims... To disrespect and disgrace another religion is an act of shame and I condemn it," he was quoted as telling a public meeting in the state of Punjab.