The new head of Afghanistan's interim government arrived in Kabul just after midnight on Wednesday after a day of conflicting rumours about his arrival. Mr Hamid Karzai, the man selected in Rome to be the war-torn country's new president for six months, had apparently been unable to leave his Kandahar home for several days because of ongoing negotiations between various factions controlling the city.
Mr Karzai went immediately to the Presidential Palace for a day of meetings with the former president, Mr Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Interior Minister, Mr Yunis Qanuni, and the UN representative, Mr Francesco Vendrell. Mr Karzai did not meet with reporters, but did sit down for an interview with the BBC.
"The first priority is total peace and prosperity," Mr Karzai said. He also said that finishing terrorism completely was a priority. He called for Afghanistan to again become a country ruled by law and regulations, to become a place that fulfilled its promise.
Yesterday evening, Mr Karzai hosted a dinner for 60 to 70 people at the presidential palace. Mr Vendrell attended, as did visiting delegations from Germany and Italy, including the Germany Economic Development Minister.
A bomb exploded along the road between Kabul and Bagram Airport yesterday, according to the UN. Several UN trucks were damaged but there were no injuries.
A UN spokeswoman said the bomb was an unexploded ordnance dropped during the recent air campaign.
Meanwhile US aircraft blasted mountain hideouts of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda fighters relentlessly yesterday, as hopes of surrender went up in smoke and Afghanistan's new government moved slowly into place.
The hills and valleys near the eastern village of Tora Bora are home to networks of caves harbouring an unknown number of al-Qaeda fighters and perhaps bin Laden.
US planes have cornered the remnants of the movement in the barren region about 40 km south of Jalalabad.
Many of bin Laden's loyalists are Arabs, like himself.
Surrender talks fell apart on Wednesday and anti-Taliban fighters announced a new deadline yesterday that passed with no sign of gunmen coming down from the hills - suggesting the idea of a surrender offer might have been a ruse by the trapped men.
"I heard an al-Qaeda fighter say on the radio they don't want to surrender," Mr Haji Atiqullah, a spokesman for anti-Taliban commander, Mr Haji Zahir, said.
"They said: we want martyrdom, we will succeed. They won't accept . . . I tried to talk to them yesterday but they did not want to."
Heavy cloud had made the US aircraft invisible from the ground but they could be heard clearly.
When the clouds lifted, planes could be seen streaking through the night sky.
The Afghan Islamic Press news agency said US special forces had landed overnight in Tora Bora and that US helicopters had increased their flights between Tora Bora and an airport in Jalalabad.
Frank Millar reports from London: Senior military figures from Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Jordan and Turkey will meet in London today to consider the composition of a stabilisation force for Afghanistan.
The conference will be chaired by the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff, Lieut Gen Tony Piggott, Downing Street confirmed last night.
The remit of the defence chiefs "will be to discuss what contribution they can make to the international force to be deployed in Kabul," a spokesman said.
At this stage Britain's commitment to the force remained "in principle" although the number of participants in today's conference suggested there would be no shortage of volunteers for "a coalition of the willing."
Mr Blair's spokesman also said yesterday that the international coalition believed Osama bin Laden had remained in Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister spoke to Pakistan's President Musharraf last night and was assured Pakistan would do everything possible to apprehend bin Laden and the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar.