5 m Dlrs for Laden reward, not bounty : US

WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) The United States offered five million dollars for information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and 21 other accused terrorists, but denied it had placed a bounty on the man President George W.

Bush said last month he wanted "Dead or Alive." "Were paying for information on their whereabouts.

We want the information.

We dont want the head," A senior State Department official told reporters yesterday after Bush unveiled the program at FBI headquarters.

The official denied the money was offered to bring the fugitives in "Dead or Alive," but said the reward of up to five million dollars was designed to appeal to anyone who knows the whereabouts of the 22, all believed to be overseas.

"These people were looking for to put in jail," another official said.

The officials predicted the reward would dramatically increase the chances the 22 would be apprehended.

Law enforcement officials said all 22 already were charged in the United States for various attacks, such as the 1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Africa, that occurred well before the Sept.

11 hijacked plane crashes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed more than 5,500 people.

They said some of the 22 defendants, including bin Laden, who the United States says masterminded last months attacks, have been linked to the suicide plane crashes.

Some of the 22 have been tied to some of the 19 hijackers, they said.

The Five Million Dollars reward for bin Laden, who already was on the FBIs list of ten most wanted fugitives for his role in the bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224 people, previously had existed, the officials said.

But they said the State Department now was prepared to pay out rewards that conceivably could reach as much as 110 million dollars for information leading to the capture of all 22.

Appearing with Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose agency runs the reward program, said the money would be paid for "Information that thwarts a terrorist attack on American or other interests or brings a terrorist to justice." He said, "it gives us millions of additional pairs of eyes and ears to be on the lookout.

It puts potential informants in every place a terrorist might try to operate or to hide." Some of the 22 were part of the leadership of bin Ladens radical muslim Al Qaeda network, Powell said.

"They have blood on their hands from September 11th and from other acts against America in Kenya, Tanzania and Yemen," he said.

Yemen was a reference to last years bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 US servicemen.

Asked whether the US governments real goal was to kill bin Laden in the military strikes on Afghanistan rather than put him on trial, one Law Enforcement official said, "our job is to investigate and prosecute.

Our mission is to find out the truth." While the 19 hijackers may be dead, their support network in the United States or overseas must be broken up or else there will be new attacks, officials said.

The state department now has about 25 million available for its rewards program, and Congress is considering giving even more money, the officials said.

They said they planned to publicize the program and noted the number of visits to the State departments web site at www.Dssrewards.Net has gone from 4,000 a day to 250,000 a day since September 11.

Taliban guest Bin Laden free to wage holy war KABUL/WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters): Afghanistans ruling Taliban said today they had lifted all restrictions on the worlds most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, and he was free to wage a holy war against the United States.

"With the start of the American attacks, these restrictions Areno longer in place," Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen told the BBCs pash to service.

"Jihad is an obligation on all Muslims of the world," he said.

"We want this, Bin Laden wants this and America will face the UN pleasant consequences of their attacks." The United States claimed control of Afghan skies after a third night of attacks on Taliban targets.

Mutmaen said U.S.

planes had launched a daylight raid on the Talibans southern stronghold of Kandahar on Wednesday morning, but no harm had come to the leadership or Bin Laden.

The hardline Taliban previously said Bin Laden, living as their guest since 1996, was being kept isolated from normal means of communication and had no access to telephones, fax machines or the internet.

Overnight, Bin Ladens Al Qaeda militant group said hijacked plane attacks on the United States would continue in a battle that would not end until the United States withdrew from Muslim lands.

The United States has named Bin Laden as its prime suspect behind the September 11 hijack plane attacks that killed around 5,600 people in the United States and triggered Washingtons war on terrorism.

The Taliban have refused to hand over Bin Laden, saying they have no evidence he was involved and questioning how he could have planned such attacks while living isolated in Afghanistan.

Washington has already implicated Bin Laden in a number of attacks on American interests, including 1998 bomb attacks on two U.S.

embassies in Africa and the bombing of the USS cole in Yemen last year.

But the Bin Laden image has become a popular icon to radical Muslims, who see him as a fighter seeking to bring freedom to Palestine, Kashmir and other trouble spots in the Muslim world.

Portraits of Bin Laden and banners reading "Osama is our hero" have been carried at anti-American demonstrations in Pakistan and other Muslim countries.

Bin Ladens activities remain as obscure as everything else about the son of the multi-millionaire Saudi businessman, who began funding militant Islamic fighters during the U.S.-backed war to drive Soviet forces from Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Disinherited and stripped of Saudi citizenship, Bin Ladenslocation in Afghanistan is a secret and he is thought to move aroundcontinually.

His days of meeting Western reporters ended after the bombing of the U.S.

Embassies in East Africa.

Al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Bu Ghaith said in yesterdays message carried on Qatars Al Jazeera satellite television that the group believed in "Terrorism against oppressors".

"Americans should know...

The storm of the (hijacked) planes will not stop," he said, referring to the suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington last month.

His statement fell short of admitting any Al Qaeda involvement in the attacks but reiterated Bin Ladens praise of the perpetrators in video taped remarks released on Sunday.

He also suggested that Muslims should target U.S.

Interests across the world.

A spokesman for Bin Ladens Al Qaeda network said in a video broadcast earlier by an Arabic television network that Americans could expect a repeat of the September attacks.

military proclaiming supremacy in the skies over Afghanistan after three days of mainly night air and missile strikes, president George W.

Bush vowed justice would be done for the attacks on New York and Washington.

"Theres one way to shorten the campaign in Afghanistan and thats for Osama Bin Laden and his leadership to be turned over so he can be brought to justice," Bush said yesterday after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

"If it takes one day, one month, one year, or one decade, were patient enough," he added.

Against a background of sporadic protests by radicals across the Islamic world, British prime minister Tony Blair stepped up a diplomatic push to win Muslim support for efforts to flush out saudi-born bin laden, who is living in Afghanistan under Taliban protection.

Blair, Bushs Staunchest Ally in his war on terrorism, arrived in the Gulf to try to win over Sceptical Arab opinion a trip coinciding with a meeting of Islamic nations in Qatar.

Secretary of state Colin Powell would make a similar trip to Pakistan, India and China, officials said.

Blair earlier told the Afghan people the west would not abandon them after the war on the Taliban had been completed.

The United States, which staged daylight raids yesterday and today, says the bombing and missile raids it began on Sunday had shattered Taliban air defences and military communications.

"We believe we are now able to carry out strikes more or less around the clock as we wish," U.S.

Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.

The latest raids hit the capital Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar in the Taliban heartland, among other targets.

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan said their spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Bin Laden were alive and well.

He rejected suggestions that their air defences had been neutralised, saying that U.S.

planes were simply out of range.

Taliban officials said that a U.S.

Cruise missile hit a residential area in Kabuls eastern outskirts overnight.

There was no independent confirmation.

In Kabul itself, residents tried to go about their normal business but there was an undercurrent of anger.

"We are unhappy about the attacks," said a shoeshine boy.

"We have not slept for the past three nights because of fear of the attacks." The opposition northern alliance appeared to be trying to take advantage of the raids.

It said it had seized control of the only remaining north-south highway after persuading 40 Taliban commanders and their 1,200 fighters to Switch sides.

The raids have triggered protests by Muslim radicals in Indonesia, the worlds largest Muslim nation, Afghanistans neighbour Pakistan and parts of the middle east where the issue has split Palestinians.

Around 1,000 students held a rowdy protest outside Indonesias Parliament today, with some trying to knock down the gate leading into the complex in the biggest anti-American demonstration in the capital Jakarta this week.

Students danced around a burning effigy of Bush.

"America-America the terrorist" students screamed.

But islamic reaction, on the whole, has been muted.

Islamic nations meeting in Qatar today were expected to voiceconcern that the U.S.-led raids against Afghanistan could extend toother muslim countries.

Bush sets justice in US attacks, has no time limit WASHNIGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters): President George W.

Bush has called the U.S.-led air strikes on Afghanistan successful so far and vowed justice would be done for the attacks on America "If it takes one day, one month, one year, or one decade." With german chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the latest foreign leader to voice support for Bushs war on terrorism, at his side, the president told reporters yesterday: "I will assure you that the terrorists of the world will understand that I mdeter mined ...

To bring them to justice." After three days of pounding Afghanistan with bombs and missiles, the Pentagon said the strikes had shattered the ruling Talibans air defenses and military communications.

But Osama Bin Laden, the man Bush said last month was "Wanted dead or alive," apparently was unharmed.

The Saudi-born militant, the prime suspect in the Sept.

11 hijacked plane attacks in New York and Washington that killed almost 5,500, is being sheltered by the Taliban.

Asked if he still wanted Bin Laden dead or alive, Bush said: "I want there to be justice." "If it takes one day, one month, one year, or one decade, were patient enough, because we understand that the actions we take together are not only important for today, but will say to future chancellors or future presidents, heres how we fight terrorism." In the white house rose garden, Bush thanked Schroeder for being "A stead fast friend" in the fragile International coalition he has cobbled together "To rout out terrorism" and stressed it would be a long and complex campaign against not only Bin Laden but also his Al Qaeda organization and other groups.

Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said attacks against targets in Afghanistan had damaged the Talibans air defenses to the point that raids could now be flown at will and around the clock.

"I believe secretary Rumsfeld summed it up pretty well today when he made it clear that the skies were now free for U.S.

planes to fly without being harassed in any way, and that the missions have been successful," Bush said.

Rumsfeld said all but one targeted airfield in the mountainous central Asian state had been damaged.

Forces mounted some daylight raids on Tuesday.

Bush declined to discuss how long air strikes would continue or whether U.S.

Ground forces would be used in Afghanistan.

He also responded coolly to the assertion by Pakistans military ruler, president Pervez Musharraf, that hehad been told the air campaign would be short.

"I dont know who told the Pakistani president that.

Generally, you know, we dont talk about military plans," Bush said.

"And theres one way to shorten the campaign in Afghanistan, and thats for Osama Bin Laden and his leadership to be turned over." Bush said the effort would be "Sustained" on all fronts military, diplomatic, financial and legal.

"Were a very patient people.

The American people understand, and I know the chancellor understands, that this isa different kind of war," he told reporters.

And acknowledging "A certain sense of fascination" with previous conflicts in Kosovo and the Gulf, where people "Couldturn on their TV screens and see high-tech weaponry burrowing into bunkers and massive explosions," Bush cautioned this warwould be unique.

"There will be a conventional component to the conflict, but much of what takes place will never make it onto the TV screens," he said.

Nevertheless, the opening salvo in Afghanistan did look remarkably like a replay of the attacks on Iraq and Serbia.

The United States and Britain launched some 50 cruise missiles at conventional military targets in Afghanistan on the first day.

The action was even visible live on Television, ALBE it courtesy of the Qatari television station Al-Jazeera instead of CNN.