International outrage escalated Friday as Afghanistan's Taliban militia pressed on with their "Islamic" mission to smash ancient statues across the country.

The European Union described as "deeply tragic" the destruction of statues, including the world's tallest standing Buddha built almost 2,000 years ago.

"It is with dismay and shock that the EU has received information about the edict of the Taliban leader Mulla Omar, in which the destruction of all statues and shrines in Afghanistan is ordered," the EU presidency in Stockholm said.

France warned the ruling militia late Thursday that it was stoking "hostility" to its regime in the world's capitals by destroying its pre-Islamic heritage with flagrant disregard for international opinion.

UN special envoy to Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell told AFP he discussed the edict with the Taliban foreign minister in Kabul Thursday but was told "the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) is not in the habit of rescinding their edicts."

"I told him that the international community is baffled at the moment and it would create international outrage if the edict is carried out," Vendrell said.

"It's going to have negative implications for the Taliban's image around the world."

Appeals to spare the Afghan relics have come from the United States, France, Germany, Thailand, Japan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Pakistan, Germany, Russia, India, the European Union, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and many museums and Buddhist organisations.

Taliban Minister of Information and Culture Qudratullah Jamal told AFP Thursday that the destruction of scores of pre-Islamic figures, designed to stop the worshipping of "false idols," had begun throughout Afghanistan.

Refusing to say how the "work" would be carried out, he said militiamen started wrecking the huge Buddhist figures in the central province of Bamiyan, including the world's tallest standing Buddha measuring 50 metres.

The Taliban have in the past fired mortars at the Bamiyan Buddhas and set off explosives around them.

He said Taliban soldiers were also busy in the Kabul museum and elsewhere in the provinces of Ghazni, Herat, Jalalabad and Kandahar.