British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair has warned Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to give up terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden or face a "targeted" military offensive.
"Surrender the terrorists or surrender power, that is your choice," he told the Labour Party's annual conference in Brighton.
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Tony Blair: promises to do what he can do avoid the deaths of more innocents
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If the Taliban did not respond, "the action we take will be proportionate, targeted," he said.
"The aim will be to eliminate their military hardware, cut off their finances, disrupt their supplies, target their troops not civilians. We will put a trap around the regime."
He promised that the US-led alliance would do "all we humanly can" to avoid civilian casualties.
Bin Laden is the chief suspect for the September 11th attacks in the United States.
A US-led coalition has called on the Taliban to hand over the Saudi-born alleged terrorist mastermind, who is based in Afghanistan, but so far without success.
"We haven't lashed out," Mr Blair went on. "We are not the ones who waged war on the innocent. We seek the guilty."
He said that whatever the dangers of taking action, the dangers of inaction were far greater.
"Any action taken will be against the terrorist network of bin Laden," he said.
As for the Taliban, it has no "moral inhibition" on slaughtering innocent people, he charged.
"There is no compromise possible with such people, no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror.
"There is just a choice: Defeat it or be defeated by it, and defeat it we must."
AFP