US bombers struck at Kandahar in the south and around Kunduz in the north this evening in the continued drive to track down bin Laden, to destroy his al Qaeda network and to defeat the Taliban.
In Kunduz - the last enclave held by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan - the Northern Alliance said it had suspended its ground assault to give the Taliban a chance to surrender. But US bombing continued, pummelling Taliban positions around the city front lines.
The opposition said 10,000 to 12,000 Taliban troops - including many Pakistanis, Arabs and Chechens linked to bin Laden's al Qaeda network -- were holed up in the city.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported heavy weekend bombing also in Kandahar, but there was no sign the country's former rulers would leave.
The brother of a leading opposition commander said the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar had abandoned plans to give the city up after Omar had a prophetic dream that envisaged Omar remaining in charge for as long as he lived.
Speaking in Kentucky toady the US Secretary of State US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell told reporters the war was not over and our troops will carry on the fight until al Qaeda is destroyed.
His words were later echoed by US Defense Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld, speaking in the Pentagon. He said the task of tracking down bin Laden and his top lieutenants remained very difficult.
Mr Rumsfeld said the United States was not interested in negotiating the surrender of Taliban enclaves and had too few troops on the ground to accept prisoners.
Meanwhile UN negotiator Mr Francesc Vendrell, in the capital Kabul to meet Afghan leaders, aimed to arrange talks within a few days on installing an interim government in the country racked by war since 1979, a UN spokesman said.
In Pakistan, adjacent to Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Mr Abdul Sattar said the UN-supervised meeting could take place this weekend - the first of a five-step process leading to the formation of a post-Taliban Afghan government.
On the economic front, a surge of optimism about a swift end to US military involvement in Afghanistan brightened the outlook for Wall Street and helped the dollar rack up gains.
The World Bank said an international conference on the economic reconstruction of Afghanistan would take place Nov 27-29 in Pakistan's capital Islamabad. At least 14 governments, world bodies and banks have been invited.