Blair predicts Bin Laden killing

The US is pounding Taleban frontline positions

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has indicated that the most likely outcome of the military campaign in Afghanistan is the death of Osama Bin Laden - chief suspect in last month's suicide plane attacks on the US.

Mr Blair said Bin Laden was well protected and well armed, and "I have always thought it unlikely that he will turn up in a court one day".

He is well protected and well armed, and I have always thought it somewhat unlikely he will turn up in court one day, but we will wait and see

Prime Minister Tony Blair

On Wednesday, US commanders admitted that Afghanistan's Taleban rulers - who are sheltering Bin Laden - were proving "tough" opponents, and correspondents on the front lines say Taleban morale remains high after four days of regular US bombing.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mr Blair did not endorse a policy of assassinating the Saudi-born dissident, but stressed the US and its allies were "entitled to take action against him".

Afghan opposition Northern Alliance fighters said the US bombardment of the Taleban front line on Wednesday was the most intense since it began on Sunday.

Blair has been Washington's staunch supporter against Bin Laden

The BBC's Kate Clark in Shomali, north of Kabul, says the bombing has hit infrastructure targets but the Taleban have not collapsed, their forces appear to be relatively intact.

Northern Alliance walkie-talkies picked up a Taleban soldier singing a song mocking the forces ranged against him even as the US bombs rained down, she says.

In other developments:

• A UN spokeswoman says more than 70% of the population of the cities of Herat, Jalalabad and Kandahar has fled
• A Taleban spokesman says a crowded bus has been hit by US bombs in Kandahar leaving many dead
• US Attorney General John Ashcroft says the hijackers involved in the 11 September attacks used the German city of Hamburg as their central base of operations
• The FBI carries out anthrax tests on an apartment used by three Arab men detained after the attacks
• The Taleban start distributing arms to civilians in the south and east of Afghanistan
• Leading Saudi Arabian cleric bans the killing of non-Muslims in Islamic countries after Bin Laden calls for Britons and Americans to leave the Arabian peninsula.

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Earlier, the Pentagon admitted it was taken aback by the tenacity of the Taleban as the US-led bombing campaign continued into its third week.

"I'm a bit surprised at how doggedly they're hanging on to power," said Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem.

"They have proven to be tough warriors."

However the commander of one of the aircraft carrier battle groups conducting the air strikes said "cracks and fissures" were appearing in the alliance of tribes linked to the Taleban.

Unexploded cluster bomblets are reported to litter villages near Herat

"There's been some small victories out there," said Rear Admiral Mark Fitzgerald of the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

But there are also reports that the Northern Alliance is unhappy that the US seems to be concentrating on the positions held by the Pakistani and Arab militia fighting alongside the Taleban, rather than those held by the Taleban themselves.

The Foreign Minister of the Alliance, Abdullah Abdullah, said co-ordination between his forces and the US military should be improved.

Cluster bombs fear

Meanwhile, the United Nations has voiced concern about the US use of cluster bombs against the Taleban.

The UN said that unexploded bomblets from cluster bombs had trapped villagers after a raid near the western Afghan city of Herat.

The villagers have a lot to be afraid of, because these bomblets, if they did not explode, are very dangerous

Mine removal expert Dan Kelly

Cluster bombs are controversial weapons consisting of a canister which breaks apart to release a large number of small bombs.

Aid agencies are warning that food warehouses in rural areas are now empty.

Oxfam said it was looking to restock via deliveries from Turkmenistan, but said it was increasingly difficult to find drivers willing to make the perilous journey into Afghanistan.

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