BRUSSELS: European nations and the EU scrambled to evacuate their citizens and local staff from Kabul on Sunday, as NATO said it was trying to keep the airport open with the Taliban closing in on power.
The hardline Islamists were on the brink of total victory in Afghanistan, after the government conceded it was preparing for a "transfer of power".
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance "was helping keep Kabul airport open to facilitate and coordinate evacuations" after consulting with a string of member countries.
The European Union was left desperately trying to find a solution for Afghan staff from its representation facing possible reprisals, and seeking to convince its 27 member states to offer them visas.
"The matter is extremely urgent, we take it very seriously and continue to work hard, together with EU Member States, on implementing rapid solutions for them and ensure their safety," an EU spokesman said.
Germany, France and the Netherlands were among countries moving diplomatic personnel from their embassy in Kabul to the airport ahead of an evacuation
"We are not going to risk our people falling into the hands of the Taliban," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the Bild daily.
France's ambassador to Afghanistan tweeted a video of himself leaving the Green Zone in Kabul aboard a helicopter as Paris looked to set up a temporary mission at the airport.
Other NATO members including Britain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden and Spain have also announced they are evacuating their embassy personnel.
The French presidency said it would "do the utmost to guarantee the safety" of French nationals still in the country as well as Afghan staff.
In a statement it said the evacuation, involving several hundred people, had begun in April.
"France is one of the few countries that has maintained the capability... to protect the Afghans who worked for the French army, as well as journalists, human rights activists, artists and Afghan figures who are especially threatened," the statement said.
Paris has vowed an "exceptional effort" to welcome Afghans under threat for their human rights work. More than 600 Afghans employed in French organisations in the country have already arrived in France along with their families, the government said on Friday.
Britain was deploying around 600 troops to help evacuate its roughly 3,000 nationals from the country, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the "vast bulk" of remaining embassy staff in Kabul would return to the UK.
He was to hold fresh crisis talks on Wednesday, recalling parliament from the summer break to discuss what Britain, which lost 457 troops in the two-decade-long war, should do next.
Italy's defence ministry said a first military plane would arrive Sunday to begin "emergency evacuation" operations.
Denmark and Norway have said they are temporarily shutting their Kabul embassies while Finland will evacuate up to 130 local Afghan workers, ministers from the Nordic countries said on Friday.
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde also noted that the country's evacuees would include Afghan interpreters and other local staff.
Meanwhile the Dutch embassy in Kabul was evacuated overnight and is operating from a makeshift office near the airport, the country's foreign ministry said Sunday.
The Netherlands said Friday that it would take in Afghan interpreters and some other embassy staff.
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