Afghan factions succumb to US pressure for talks on government

As talks for a broad-based Afghan government looked likely to start in Europe this week, US forces have focused their search for Osama bin Laden on the Tora Bora mountains near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

The £17.5m ($25m) reward for information leading to the arrest of Mr bin Laden has led to Pashtun operatives showering Western and Pakistani intelligence operatives with information about his hideouts.

Taliban informants have reportedly told Pakistan's intelligence agents that Mr bin Laden had sought protection among 1,500 Arab fighters left stranded in the mountains by the retreating Taliban. The Tora Bora mountains, in Nangarhar province near the Pakistani border, were an important location for Islamic fighters during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and have been under Taliban control ever since.

While the hunt for suspected terrorists continued, Washington reported a breakthrough in its efforts to persuade the Northern Alliance to take part in UN-brokered talks on a new government in a neutral setting.

The Alliance's leader, Burhanuddin Rabbani, had insisted that a power-sharing conference could only take place in Kabul, raising fears that it intended to dominate the government and exclude the ethnic Pashtun majority.

But at a meeting in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, with the US envoy, James Dobbins, the Alliance's Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, said the meeting "will be held outside Afghanistan", possibly as early as this week. He suggested Germany, Austria or Switzerland would be a suitable venue. Switzerland said it was willing to host the meeting.

The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, expressed hopes that the meeting, organised by the top UN envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, would take place in days.

General Powell said he was "very pleased" with the Alliance's willingness to attend the planned UN-convened meeting, but added: "Let's also keep in mind that our political objective was to get al-Qa'ida, that terrorist network, and to get Osama bin Laden."

Meanwhile, Jordanian officials revealed the country had recently thwarted at least two attacks on resort hotels planned by agents linked to al-Qa'ida.

Officials said they arrested three men accused of plotting to bomb two hotels after intercepting a phone call in which a bin Laden lieutenant mentioned a "big wedding" – suspected code for an attack. Those arrests came a few days before the 11 September attacks, Time magazine reported.