Russia is a member of a nine-member UN credentials committee - along with China and the United States - which will deal with the competing claims on Afghanistan's UN seat later this year.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that international recognition of the Taliban was not currently under consideration.

Lavrov was speaking on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders in New York for the UN General Assembly. His remarks follow the Taliban's nomination of a U.N. envoy, setting up a showdown over Afghanistan's seat in the world body.

"The question of international recognition of the Taliban at the present juncture is not on the table," Lavrov told a news conference.

Suhail Shaheen, the Islamist group's Doha-based spokesman, was nominated as Afghanistan's United Nations ambassador on Monday by Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last month.

Ghulam Isaczai, the current UN ambassador who represents the Afghan government ousted by the Taliban, has also asked to renew his UN accreditation.

Russia is a member of a nine-member UN credentials committee - along with China and the United States - which will deal with the competing claims on Afghanistan's UN seat later this year.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the Taliban`s desire for international recognition is the only leverage other countries have to press for inclusive government and respect for rights, particularly for women, in Afghanistan.

When the Taliban last ruled between 1996 and 2001, the ambassador of the Afghan government they toppled remained the U.N. representative after the credentials committee deferred its decision on rival claims to the seat.