The United States has appointed a senior diplomat as its representative to the Afghan opposition. James Dobbins's will co-ordinate the diplomatic offensive against the Taliban, and provide a link between the opposition and Washington.
Meanwhile, the Taliban has called on the United Nations to provide urgent aid to help thousands of people who, they say, have been displaced by the US led bombing offensive.
The call, from the Taliban's ambassador in Pakistan, comes despite reports that UN operations in Afghanistan have been hindered by the US bombing and harassment by the Taliban authorities.
The US military, meanwhile, believes the Taliban have suffered substantial losses. The Pentagon spokesman said that the US also believed that the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden had been weakened by the bombing, although he did not provide details.
United States warplanes earlier bombed Taliban positions in northern Afghanistan. The move is aimed at paving the way for a renewed push by opposition forces toward the key city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Elsewhere, several Taliban fighters were killed when US missiles slammed into a hotel used as a Taliban base in the Afghan capital, Kabul, this morning.
The rockets hit Baghi Bala Hotel, a Taliban base west of the downtown, and the main road leading to it. The wreckage of a Taliban four-wheel-drive vehicle and scraps of flesh were seen scattered on the road afterwards.
Residents said that from the sound of the engines, they believed the pre-dawn attack was carried out by helicopter gunships. They reported hearing four loud explosions. They said that Taliban anti-aircraft guns did not respond. At midnight, nine militia fighters were reportedly injured in the city when a rocket struck a Taliban truck.
Kabul has recently been spared the worst of US air raids, which are now concentrated on Taliban frontline positions north of the capital and in northeast Afghanistan.
The Pentagon has said that more United States Special Forces troops have been deployed in Afghanistan.
The chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, said that they had managed to get more teams into the country to help the opposition Northern Alliance and to identify targets for air attacks.
He said that Taliban supply lines had been disrupted and that opposition forces were being equipped with weapons.
