THE US: The US has said it expected the Afghan government to turn over the spiritual leader of the deposed Taliban if he is captured or detained as a result of negotiations in southern Afghanistan.
A defence department spokeswoman, Ms Victoria Clarke said Washington was confident Mullah Mohammad Omar would be surrendered by the country's interim government if he was taken.
She spoke as negotiations continued between Afghan officials and trapped Taliban fighters northwest of the city of Kandahar where Mullah Omar was believed to be hiding.
Ms Clarke said hundreds of US airborne troops had begun replacing Marines at the Kandahar airport as US forces continued the hunt for Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders. Among those still at large are Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden.
"It's been made very clear that we expect to have control of him (Mullah Omar)," said Ms Clarke. "We've made it very, very clear consistently what we expect the disposition of these people should be, particularly the leadership."
Ms Clarke and Navy Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem told reporters that US forces were continuing the hunt for al-Qaeda and the Taliban and any intelligence information that would help in Washington's international war on terrorism.
"We are casting a relatively wide net to build intelligence," said Adm Stufflebeem when asked about a force of about 200 US Marines searching a compound north of Kandahar believed to have been used by al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
Officials in Kandahar, the former power base of Mullah Omar, said early yesterday negotiations were under way to try to capture the fugitive cleric without bloodshed. Kandahar intelligence chief, Mr Haji Gullalai, is hunting Mullah Omar, who is believed to have taken refuge with 1,500 die-hard fighters near the town of Baghran in southern Helmand province, some 100 miles northwest of Kandahar.
Ms Clarke and Adm Stufflebeem refused to confirm or deny reports that additional elite US Army Special Operations troops had in the past week joined the hunt for Mullah Omar and bin Laden.
The officials said US forces were now questioning 221 al-Qaeda and Taliban "detainees" at facilities in Afghanistan and aboard the Navy warship Bataan in the northern Indian Ocean.
The US has not filed any charges to date against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters captured in Afghanistan, although hundreds more are expected to be turned over to the US military by the Afghan government and Pakistan forces, who captured many as they fled the fighting in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a reconnaissance team from 12 nations contributing to a security force in Kabul began inspecting the Afghan capital city yesterday as British troops prepared a base for the peacekeeping operation.
The 25-strong team from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Romania met British troops at the force's headquarters in a dilapidated former sports club in the centre of Kabul.
About 300 British troops have now moved into the base to prepare for a UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), under British Gen John McColl, backing the interim government that replaced the Taliban.
Gen McColl and the Afghan Interior Minister, Mr Yunis Qanuni, have initialled an agreement on deploying the ISAF, which is expected to swell to about 4,500 troops in the next few weeks and begin patrolling in mid-January. "There are clear language difficulties and very significant cultural differences," said Col Richard Barrons, chief of staff of ISAF. "We're going to have to work very hard to establish an effective partnership."