US and Taliban officials met secretly in Frankfurt almost a year before the September 11th attacks to discuss terms for the Afghans to hand over Osama bin Laden, according to a German television documentary.
But no agreement was reached and no further talks took place before the suicide hijackings in 2001 that bin Laden later hailed in a videotape as the work of his al-Qaeda network.
ZDF television quoted Mr Kabir Mohabbat, an Afghan-American businessman, as saying he tried to broker a deal between the Americans and the Islamic Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, who were sheltering bin Laden.
He quoted the Taliban foreign minister, Mullah Wakil Ahmed Mutawakil, as saying: "You can have him whenever the Americans are ready. Name us a country and we will extradite him."
A German member of the European Parliament, Mr Elmar Brok, confirmed he had helped Mr Mohabbat in 1999 to establish initial contact with the Americans.
"I was told [by Mohabbat] that the Taliban had certain ideas about handing over bin Laden, not to the United States but to a third country or to the Court of Justice in The Hague," Mr Brok said.
The documentary, broadcast last night, said the Afghans put forward "several offers" and there was talk of holding further talks at the US embassy in Pakistan on where and when bin Laden would be handed over.
But no more talks took place before September 11th, although discussions did resume five days after the attacks, in the Pakistani city of Quetta, ZDF said. This meeting was reported in US media.