As anti-Taliban forces claimed further dramatic advances in Afghanistan, the focus of the US-led campaign began to shift towards tracking down Osama bin Laden. The United Nations continued its preparations for a conference of Afghan factions to discuss the country's future.
There was an unconfirmed report that the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar had fallen, but the Pentagon struck a more cautious note. A spokesman said the Northern Alliance opposition had made gains south of Kabul but the situation remained fluid. "Anti-Taliban opposition groups in southern Afghanistan are rebelling against Taliban control, especially near Kandahar," the Pentagon spokesman said.
In New York, the UN Security Council last night endorsed, by 15 votes to 0, a resolution on proposals for a broad-based post-Taliban Afghan government. Ireland's UN Ambassador, Mr Richard Ryan, speaking at the Council, encouraged all potential Afghan participants in the conference and all those with influence on them to co-operate with the UN effort to form a transitional government.
He also urged respect for human rights and international humanitarian law and said that whatever international assistance was provided to maintain security in Afghanistan should have the endorsement and approval of the Council.
Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance appointed itself as the government in the capital, Kabul, with three self-styled ministers of state. Its leaders faced growing international pressure to agree to a broadbased, multi-ethnic government including the country's Pashtun tribe - the ethnic base for the Taliban militia.
US warplanes, directed by American troops on the ground, continued to bomb Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan. US military analysts said the Taliban would have difficulty waging guerrilla warfare with supply-lines cut off.
The British Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, said in neighbouring Uzbekistan that bombing would continue until bin Laden was found. He told BBC radio he believed the Saudi-born militant would be captured.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, appealed directly to the Pashtun to hand over bin Laden, as thousands of British troops were placed on standby for operations in the country.
An estimated 20,000 Taliban troops were surrounded by Alliance forces at the northern city of Kunduz. The troops included a large number of Arab volunteers who would face the prospect of execution if they surrendered.
The United Arab Emirates agreed to host talks in Abu Dhabi between the Afghan factions if requested to do so by the UN. Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special envoy for Afghanistan, said the Afghan parties were still being consulted. Geneva or Vienna were alternative locations and no date has been set.
A US official early this morning confirmed that 8 foreign aid workers on trial by the Taliban for preaching Christianity had been released and evacuated by helicopter to Pakistan.
The Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) said in a statement in Islamabad that, while the Taliban retreat was a positive development, the UN should rapidly send in a peacekeeping force before the Alliance repeated the "unforgettable crimes" of the early '90s when it last controlled Kabul.