Vice-President Dick Cheney won Yemeni support yesterday for Washington's drive to prevent the poor Arab country from becoming "another Afghanistan" and to stop al-Qaeda forces regrouping there.
But Yemen told Mr Cheney it opposed any US military action against Iraq for fear it would undermine regional stability.
"We don't want more oil on the fire," an adviser to President Ali Abdullah Saleh said. "We need to solve the Palestinian question."
Violence between Israelis and Palestinians has overshadowed Mr Cheney's tour. Mr Cheney held two hours of talks with Mr Saleh, before flying to Oman.
Yemen, on the south-western tip of the Arabian peninsula, is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, Washington's prime suspect in the September 11th attacks.
It was the site of the bombing of the warship Cole in 2000 which the US blames on bin Laden.
Washington is concerned al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan might head for Yemen's rugged mountains, where government forces have been hunting for suspected bin Laden followers believed to be sheltered by tribesmen.
Meanwhile, Afghan troops found Egyptians, Sudanese, Indonesians and other nationalities among 20 dead Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters discovered yesterday in caves after the biggest battle of the war.
The commander of US forces on the ground, Gen Frank Hagenbeck, said he believed Chechens, Uzbeks and Chinese were also among hundreds of militants killed in the 12-day battle of Shahi Kot, which ended on Wednesday when US, Canadian and Afghan troops overran rebel caves.
"We have killed some second or third al-Qaeda leadership. Big names were not in the valley. But we have indications where they are and I can assure you we will track them down and kill them," Gen Hagenbeck said. "We are not going to let loose of these guys. We got good leads on them. We track them 24 hours a day. We have the means and the patience. We do all it takes to get them."
The US military says it killed 800 to 1,000 militants during the campaign, although Afghan commanders have expressed concerns many slipped across the rugged mountains towards Pakistan.
US aircraft used a new "thermobaric" 2,000-lb bomb which creates a blast that drives air out of a cave to suffocate those inside.
According to one of bin Laden's five wives he was irritable, lonely and in pain in the period before the September 11th attacks.
In an interview with the London-based Arab-language al-Majallah magazine, the wife, identified by the initials "A.S.", said bin Laden had been suffering from kidney and stomach pains and told her he wanted to die in Afghanistan.
She had not heard from him since September 11th, when she was hiding in caves in Afghanistan before being moved to Pakistan by one of his sons. In a rare insight into the personal life of the world's most wanted man, the woman said that in addition to her, bin Laden had two wives in Kandahar, a third in Kabul and another in Tora Bora. - (Reuters)