The US national security adviser, Condoleeza Rice, has said that the US could not afford to stop offensives in Afghanistan for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The leaders of some Muslim nations, including Pakistan, had asked the United States to halt its bombing for the period, which is due to begin later this month.
In a separate development, it has been reported that Osama bin Laden has urged Pakistani Muslims to defend Islam against what he described as a Christian crusade. The independent Arab television station, al-Jazeera, broadcast a picture of a letter, written in Arabic and apparently bearing bin Laden's signature.
Meanwhile, Turkey has announced that it is to send around 90 special forces troops to join the American led campaign against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Turkey is the only mainly Muslim country in NATO.
Earlier today, American air strikes were reported to have put Afghanistan's biggest power station out of action.
Two major cities, Kandahar and Lashkarga, are without electricity due to the bombing of the Kajaki hydro-electric power station in Helmand province, according to the Afghan regime.
But Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban education minister, told the Pakistan-based AIP that the dam has also been badly damaged. Muttaqi said that water was not gushing out of the dam, but any further bombing would destroy it. He said thousands of lives were at risk, should the dam burst.
American warplanes have been continuing attacks on Taliban frontline troops positions in northeast Afghanistan and on targets near the southern stronghold city of Kandahar. The Pentagon has said that B-52 bombers are in use across Afghanistan, "carpet-bombing" Taliban positions.
The policy of carpet-bombing appears to mark a change of American strategy, with attacks now covering wide areas instead of individual targets.
The Taliban authorities have said that the civilian death toll from the campaign has risen to around 1,500 people. But the United States has strongly contested the figures and has insisted that the air strikes have caused crippling damage to the regime's military capability.
