UN envoy meets new Afghan interior minister wanted by U.S.

FILE PHOTO: A view of an entrance of the United Nations multi-agency compound near Herat November 5, 2009. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl/

(Reuters) - A U.N. envoy has met Afghanistan's new interior minister who was for years was one of the world's most wanted Islamist militants and is now part of a government trying to head off a humanitarian crisis.

The meeting between Deborah Lyons, head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, and Sirajuddin Haqqani focused on humanitarian assistance, Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman, said in a statement on Twitter on Thursday.