The Taleban authorities in Afghanistan have described the United States offer of a huge reward for information leading to the arrest of the exiled Saudi millionaire, Osama Bin Laden, as an encouragement to terrorism.

In a BBC interview, a senior Taleban official, Molvi Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, also said the United States had failed to provide evidence to support its allegations against Mr Laden, who is living at an un-disclosed location in Afghanistan.

The US State Department has offered a reward of five-million dollars for the arrest of Mr Laden.

He is wanted in connection with the attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania earlier this year in which more than two-hundred-and-twenty people were killed.