US woos rebels to fight Taleban

United States President George W. Bush has secretly increased money to Afghan rebels so they can buy Russian weapons to fight the Taleban.

Resurgent opposition forces are emerging as a potential second front in the US campaign to force the Taleban to hand over Osama bin Laden, as the United Nations tries to head off a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished country.

The Northern Alliance claimed yesterday to have gained control of large areas of the mountainous north after three days of fierce fighting.

Its spokesman said up to 1000 Taleban had deserted as the rebels seized the Qadis district.

The alliance has offered 15,000 troops experienced in guerrilla warfare to a military operation to oust the regime, although it wants the operation to be led by the United Nations rather than the US.

The Bush Administration plans to use various rebel forces as it increases pressure on the Taleban to turn over bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

As the United Nations warned that 300,000 Afghans in the north were on the verge of starvation, officials worried about the risk of military action were hoping that the Taleban's ethnically diverse support base could start to crumble.

The US is increasingly wary of further terrorism if it launches a sustained military assault on the hardline Islamic regime.

The Administration expects that Northern Alliance rebels will help in an expanded CIA operation to find bin Laden.

The CIA has been authorised to target hundreds of tribal chiefs with offers of money and food in exchange for breaking with the regime.

The New York Times reported that covert funding could enable anti-Taleban groups to buy weapons, recruit new fighters, bribe Taleban commanders to switch sides, or undertake other efforts to weaken the regime.

On the diplomatic front, a US Congress delegation met the country's former ruler, King Zahir Shah, who is in Rome, discussing a possible post-Taleban government with the Northern Alliance. The frail former monarch says he wants to ease the transition to a moderate government in Kabul.

The US hardened its stance yesterday after Taleban leaders said they were hiding bin Laden for his own protection at a site known only to top security officers.

Officials said the Taleban would be driven from power unless they turned over the Saudi militant.

An offer to negotiate from the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, met a crisp rebuff from Washington. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said the US would not negotiate.

"They cannot be a party to these terrorist acts and if they are going to continue to be a party to the terrorist acts, they should not be in power."

But Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar told his people not to fear US attacks because "Americans don't have the courage to come here".

In other developments:

* President Bush authorised $US100 million ($247.15 million) to help Afghan refugees in Pakistan, in a bid to quell resentment over the thousands pouring across the border every day.

* Afghanistan's top judge, Noor Mohammed Saqib, said the threat of a US strike would not influence the trial of eight aid workers charged with promoting Christianity.

* Diplomatic efforts continued to free British journalist Yvonne Ridley, detained after she entered the country illegally. The Taleban sent a team to the north-eastern city of Jalalabad to investigate whether the 43-year-old was a spy.

* British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had seen "incontrovertible" evidence linking bin Laden to the attacks.

* Britain froze a Taleban bank account in London believed to hold $US88 million in assets.

* In a blow to the US military preparations, Saudi Arabia ruled out the use of its bases for strikes against Afghanistan.

* A total of 5756 people are feared killed from the terrorist attacks, more than 1000 fewer than earlier estimates.

Map: Opposing forces in the war against terror

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