whiles away the days negotiating with the taliban. he left kabul shortly before the country was taken over and he s trying to find a way back in, to continue his work running the u.n. mine clearance program. the country is absolutely littered in explosive remnants of war. there are the ieds they laid to try and disrupt government organizations, then the normal conflict grenades, rockets, shells that have been used, plus what was dropped on them. reporter: the irony is that the taliban is now asking for help in clearing the ieds that they laid in the first place. i am expecting to have a call with a taliban representative in the next few days to discuss how we can start getting at the moment about 40% of the demining teams in afghanistan working. by the end of september we d like 80%, 90%. reporter: one of those teams isemale and heslop is taking advice on whether there might be