The US has opened up new fronts in its air strikes in Afghanistan in an effort to bolster the military campaign while political efforts continue to find a replacement government for the Taliban.
The Pentagon yesterday announced raids on underground caves and bunkers used by Osama bin Laden's supporters in the east of Afghanistan, as well as attacks on Taliban positions in the north-east close to the Tajik border.
As the attacks entered their fourth week there was little sign that the Taliban's grip on power was weakening and no reports that anti-Taliban opposition forces had yet gained any ground.
The Taliban regime yesterday derided the US offensive as ineffectual and claimed to have arrested an unspecified number of Americans within the country.
"The only significant achievement these intensified air raids brought the Americans is a wave of anti-American campaigns throughout the world," the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, Mr Abdul Salam Zaeef, told a press conference. A Pentagon spokeswoman, asked about the claimed arrests, said she had nothing to say on the matter.
Meanwhile, the US commander-in-chief of the military attacks, Gen Tommy Franks, arrived in Pakistan for talks with the President, Gen Pervez Musharraf.
The UN special envoy to Afghanistan, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, met senior Pakistani officials yesterday for talks on how to form a broad-based government in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to replace the Taliban. He is also expected to meet Gen Musharraf today to discuss the Afghan war and efforts to form a new government there.
Meanwhile, in an ongoing display of unity with the Taliban, several thousand heavily armed Pakistani men continued to congregate near the Afghan border ready to cross and join the regime to fight the Americans.
The FBI has "specific and credible" information that a fresh terrorist attack on the US is planned in the next week, the US Attorney General, Mr John Ashcroft, said last night.
Mr Ashcroft added that the intelligence received did not reveal the target or method of attack, as he put the nation on the highest state of alert.