Bin Laden urged to leave Afghanistan

Bin Laden urged to leave Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Agencies): Afghan clerics on Thursday recommended that Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in last week's nightmare attacks, leave their country, an overture rejected by the U.S.

Washington instead demanded the world's most hunted man be turned over to responsible authorities.

"It does not meet America's requirements," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "This is about much more than one man being allowed to leave voluntarily, presumably, from one safe harbor to another safe harbor."

"It is time for action, not words. The president has demanded that key figures of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, including bin Laden, be turned over to responsible authorities and that the Taliban close terrorist camps in Afghanistan and the United States stands behind those demands."

Britain also said on Thursday that proposals by Afghan clerics that bin Laden leave their country voluntarily would not satisfy an international campaign to crack down on militants.

A grand council, or shura, of Afghanistan's Islamic clerics meeting in Kabul, issued an edict recommending the Taliban urge bin Laden to leave whenever possible. It threatened to declare a jihad, or holy war, if the United States attacked Afghanistan as part of its declared "war on terrorism" around the world in the aftermath of the attacks.

"If infidels invade an Islamic country and that country does not have the ability to defend itself, jihad becomes a definite obligation of all the world's Muslims," it said.

Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a Kabul news conference that Taliban spiritual leader Mulla Mohammad Omar would likely accept the clerics' edict.

Muttaqi said earlier the Saudi-born exile's departure could take time and his destination was uncertain.

The edict also said anyone helping the United States in an attack on Afghanistan would face a holy war -- a threat aimed particularly at neighboring Pakistan that has offered its full support for U.S. military action.

"If in the time of an American attack, any Muslims, be they Afghans or non-Afghans, cooperate with the infidels, accomplices or spy, that person also is punishable to death like the foreign invaders," it said.

"To avoid the current tumult and also future similar suspicions, the high council of the honorable ulema (clerics) recommends to the Islamic Emirate (of Afghanistan) to persuade Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan whenever possible," said the edict, issued by the Taliban's Information Ministry after the two-day meeting.

The edict criticized Bush for offending Muslims by referring to his campaign against extremists as a "crusade."

The clerics said bin Laden should find another place to live and called for separate investigations into the attacks by the United Nations and Organization of Islamic Conference.

They voiced "their sadness over American deaths and hope America does not attack Afghanistan."

Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush will address a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress on Thursday and is expected to urge Americans to be vigilant and patient as the United States prepared to strike its first blow in what he has called the first war of the 21st century.

In Thursday's address to the nation, Bush will make clear that his campaign is not a replay of the Gulf War, a traditional war conducted by his father that pitted a U.S.-led coalition against Iraq.

"I think the president is going to use this as an opportunity to talk about the sustained nature of this campaign," White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said.

The first phase of the U.S. response would be retaliation against those responsible and those who harbor them followed by a longer global struggle against militant networks, she said.

The United States has launched Operation Infinite Justice in response to attacks on New York and Washington that left 6,000 dead and missing, putting up to 500 U.S. warplanes within striking distance of Afghanistan.

U.S. Army Secretary Thomas White said Army units had been ordered to deploy for possible military operations.

In another development in Islamabad, Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban's deputy ambassador to Pakistan, said bin Laden was ready to be tried if Washington could produce evidence linking him to the attacks.

Shaheen told Reuters Television bin Laden could be tried in Kabul or in another Muslim country. "If there's evidence, he is ready for a trial."

"He said 'I am not involved, I am a guest (in Afghanistan). If they have evidence, I am ready'," Shaheen said.

Thousands of Afghans fled cities fearing a U.S. punishment strike. Relief agencies warned of a devastating human disaster. With a bitter winter on the way, some refugees are already being forced to eat grass and animal fodder.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied published reports on Thursday of a rift within the Bush administration over the scope and timing of a U.S.-led military response.