The US Defence Secretary has sent a strong signal that there should be no negotiated settlement with terrorists. Donald Rumsfeld ruled out a surrender deal that would, in the words of a Taliban spokesman, allow Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to live in dignity.
His comments follow reports that Mullah Omar has agreed to surrender the last Taliban bastion, the southern city of Kandahar. The announcement came after negotiations between the Taliban and Hamid Karzai, the tribal leader named to head a new Afghan government, and followed relentless US bombing in and around Kandahar.
Another US spokesman welcomed the news but said coalition forces would continue pursuing Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. Kenton Keith said in a statement released in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, that no one wanted the war in Afghanistan to go on a day longer than necessary, least of all the US-led coalition.
The British Prime Minister said in London that the Taliban was in a state of collapse. Tony Blair also signalled that he backed the United States' dismissal of an amnesty for Omar.
Earlier, White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said that President George W Bush believed very strongly that those who harboured terrorists needed to be brought to justice.
