The US Administration yesterday said that it is preparing to document evidence for its allies that Osama bin Laden was responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington.
"In the near future we will be able to put out a document linking him to this attack," the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said on NBC's Meet the Press.
However, the US still insists its demands for bin Laden's surrender are unconditional and that it is unwilling to justify its claims about him to Afghanistan's Taliban leadership.
The Administration also rejected out of hand claims by the Taliban that they do not know where bin Laden is now.
The President's National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, said bluntly: "We are not going to be deterred by comments that he may be missing. We don't simply believe it."
Meanwhile, the US regional military build-up and diplomatic offensive continued apace.
Reports from northern Afghanistan suggest that pressure on the Taliban government is being escalated by the day, with Northern Alliance leaders yesterday claiming to have killed 80 government fighters and captured two hundred in an offensive that has taken several villages.
And there are reports that special forces and agents from the US and its allies are already on the ground. British papers claimed SAS undercover troops even engaged Taliban troops on Friday. An unmanned US spy plane is missing, the Secretary of Defence, Mr Don Rumsfeld confirmed.
Rewarding regional allies over the weekend, President Bush lifted sanctions against India and Pakistan. The move does not, however, apply to those sanctions imposed on Pakistan in 1999 after its military replaced the democratically elected government.
Mr Bush is expected today to issue an executive order designating individuals and groups in the US as terrorist allowing federal authorities to move against their assets and bank accounts.
And US officials said Mr Rumsfeld was preparing a second deployment order to send more warplanes to the Gulf. That would bring to more than 200 the number of planes that would join about 350 aircraft already in the region at land bases and on aircraft carriers. The Pentagon activated another 5,172 reserve troops for "homeland defence" on Saturday.
Administration officials were being careful to play down reports from Riyadh of a rift with the Saudis about potential use of the kingdom's air bases for an attack on Afghanistan. "They have been very responsive to everything we have asked for," the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, told journalists. "We're satisfied with the co-operation they have given us." Saudi officials in Riyadh, however, told AP the US cannot use the Prince Sultan Air Base, south of the Saudi capital. "Saudi Arabia will not accept any infringement on its national sovereignty, but it fully backs action aimed at eradicating terrorism and its causes," said the official, who refused to be identified further.
A diplomat in Riyadh, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Saudis were pushing for a multilateral campaign that would allow them some influence over American targets. On Saturday, Mr Bush, who spent the weekend at Camp David, spoke at length to Russia's President Putin. "We must unite forces of all civilised society," said Mr Putin later. He yesterday spoke by phone to the leaders of the front-line republics of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, seeking to co-ordinate their response to the attacks. US military supply planes are already reported to have landed in Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mr Kamal Kharrazi, said Tehran would join an international coalition to fight terrorism if it was co-ordinated by the United Nations.
The US has warned its allies of a possible second round of attacks by the end of this week, Jiji news agency quoted Japanese government sources as saying.
