President Bush has poured scorn on Osama bin Laden and made clear Afghan calls for a quick end to US bombing would not be met until the United States found the world's most wanted man dead or alive.
Mr Bush also urged Americans to remain on the alert in case of new attacks by bin Laden's al Qaeda network saying he had intelligence reports that the group blamed for September 11 suicide hijack attacks was bent on more destruction.
In disdainful comments, Mr Bush said the United States did not know bin Laden's fate or location but the Saudi-born Islamic militant was a man on the run who in three months had swapped control of a country for control of a cave.
Making his first direct remarks since Christmas holidays when a new videotape of bin Laden set off reports that the chief suspect for the September 11 suicide hijack attacks had escaped to neighboring Pakistan, Mr Bush said bin Laden's main achievement had been to be on the losing side of a rout.
Afghan Defense Minister General Mohammad Fahim added his voice to others saying bin Laden may be in Pakistan.
"After fleeing from Tora Bora (in eastern Afghanistan) there is a strong probability that Osama is in Peshawar (northern Pakistan)," he said in an interview with Reutersand journalists from Japan.
The mountainous Tora Bora region was thought to be the last redoubt of bin Laden's al Qaeda network before they were blasted from the region's myriad caves by US bombing.
Mr Fahim said there would be no need for US bombing once a few remaining border areas were cleared of final resistance.
Earlier, his spokesman said this would take no more than three days after which the bombing must stop.
The United States, though, said it had received no request to stop the bombing, and declined to make such a promise.
Mr Bush and his military commander in charge of the Afghan operation said they were keeping all their options open.
"We don't know whether he's in a cave with the door shut, or a cave with the door open. We just don't know. There's all kinds of reports and all kinds of speculation," Bush said of bin Laden. "But one thing is for certain: He's on the losing side of a rout."
With operational commander General Tommy Franks at his side at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, Mr Bush said he expected US forces to remain in Afghanistan "for quite a long period of time."
"I think that it's best for all of us to recognize that we will not be hurried," Mr Franks said. "We will not be pressed into doing something that does not represent our national objectives, and we will take as long as it takes."
Mr Bush also declined to sign on to any suggestion that bin Laden was no longer in a position to mastermind another attack on the United States or its allies.
"I hope 2002 is a year of peace, but I'm also realistic," he said. "And I know full well that bin Laden and his cronies would like to harm America again ... How do I know that? I receive intelligence reports on a daily basis that indicates that that's his desires."
In Pakistan, Maulana Fazalur Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam party which helped create the Taliban, denied Kabul claims that he was protecting bin Laden and called it a ruse to divert the US campaign away from Afghanistan.