It is reported that all Taliban forces in the besieged northern Afghan city of Kunduz, both native and foreign, have agreed to surrender.
Northern Alliance commander Abdul Rashid Dostum, speaking after negotiations in nearby Mazar-i-Sharif, said that the Kunduz problem would be solved "without a fight" and that the fight for the city was finished.
Dostum said that he was also in contact with Taliban leaders in other parts of Afghanistan including Kandahar, the movement's southern stronghold. He said that the Mazar meeting was still going on in order to work out details of how the Kunduz surrender would take place.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has confirmed that talks planned for Germany next week on the future of Afghanistan have been switched to Bonn from Berlin. The talks will begin on Monday.
They will include representatives of major factions and ethnic groups from Afghanistan, where Taliban rulers have lost their grip on power following a US military campaign.
Earlier the chief of the US armed forces said that Osama bin Laden is on the run. General Richard Myers said that the United States was prepared to pursue him beyond Afghanistan if necessary.
Speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels, General Myers also said that the United States was not hunting one individual, but the whole Al Qaeda network and the Taliban, to ensure that a future Afghan government did not help or harbour terrorists.
The Taliban said earlier that they had no intention of surrendering power in southern Afghanistan, and no longer had any contact with bin Laden.
The Northern Alliance gave Taliban troops in Kunduz, Afghanistan, a new deadline for surrender. General Nazir Mahmad, an Alliance commander, said that the troops must surrender by tomorrow morning "or take responsibility for the consequences".
An estimated 30,000 civilians are reported to be trapped inside the northern town. It is estimated that over 10,000 Afghan Taliban troops and Pakistani, Arab and Chechen fighters linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network are encircled there. The city represents the final enclave of the crippled Afghan regime in the North of the country.
Ex-Taliban fighters and anti-Taliban forces outside the city say that a large number of Afghan Taliban fighters want to leave, but al Qaeda forces are committed to fighting to the death. They are reportedly executing any troops suspected of preparing to leave the city.
