Afghanistan's ruling Taliban yesterday rejected an ultimatum from President George W Bush to surrender Osama bin Laden and said a U.S. military strike on the country would be a "showdown of might".

"We are not ready to hand over Osama bin Laden without evidence," Kabul's Ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, said in Islamabad.

He said the government was not bound by an edict from leading Afghan clerics on Thursday declaring Bin Laden should be persuaded to leave the country "whenever possible."

Girding his nation for a long "war on terrorism" after last week's hijacked airliner attacks on America, Bush earlier warned the Taliban to turn over Bin Laden and his leading followers or share their fate.

"Whether we bring our enemies to justice or justice to our enemies, justice will be done," Bush said in a speech to a joint session of Congress that set forth his doctrine for an all-out assault on those he called enemies of freedom.

He said all evidence gathered so far pointed to Bin Laden and his Al Qaida organisation as responsible for the carnage at the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon that left more than 6,500 people dead or missing.

Bush, telling the U.S. military to get ready, vowed: "The hour is coming when America will act".
With the United States rapidly deploying warplanes and aircraft carrier groups to the Middle East and Indian Ocean, Bush gave the Taliban an ultimatum that also included shutting Qaida training camps in the impoverished country.

"These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists or they will share in their fate," he said.

In a resolute address met by two dozen standing ovations from the floor of the Congress, Bush told foreign governments, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists".

"From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbour or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime," Bush said.

In a sign of differing approaches that could complicate Bush's push for a global coalition, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia said defeating terrorism would also require justice for oppressed Islamic populations.

"Hunting terrorism with weapons alone will not solve the problem completely as long as the anger among the oppressed still exists," said Mahathir, who has pledged support for U.S. action to punish those behind the attacks.

Tens of thousands of Afghans, including Taliban officials, have streamed out of major cities for the relative safety of the countryside and for the borders of Pakistan and Iran amid growing expectations of a punishing U.S. military strike.

Fierce fighting was also reported from northern Afghanistan yesterday, as Taliban troops battled opposition forces seeking revenge for the killing of their leader, Ahmad Shah Masood, and taking advantage of the threat of U.S. strikes. Bin Laden has been linked to the assassination.

Zaeef, speaking through an interpreter, said the Taliban would never surrender if the United States launched attacks on their Central Asian nation and that Muslims had an obligation to respond with jihad.

"It would be a showdown of might," he said. "We will never surrender to evil and might. If Osama voluntarily leaves Afghanistan, he may," Zaeef told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press agency.

Aiming to head off charges he is waging war on Islam, Bush called Bin Laden's followers traitors to the peaceful teachings of their faith and said America's fight was not with Muslims.

In Afghanistan's neighbour Pakistan, where support for the Taliban runs high, demonstrators set fire to shops and stoned cars yesterday in protest at President Pervez Musharraf's decision to side with Washington in the hunt for Bin Laden.

Hours before Bush spoke, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani raised the missing toll at the Trade Centre to 6,333. Only five people have been rescued from the rubble that once was the symbol of U.S. financial might, and none since September 12.

French police yesterday said they had arrested seven people suspected of belonging to extremist groups thought to be planning attacks on U.S. interests in France, including the American embassy.

Officials in Yemen said more than 20 people were under arrest there on suspicion of links to Bin Laden.

Bush also announced the creation of a Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security, with outgoing Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge as its director, to head efforts to overcome weaknesses in domestic security laid bare by last week's attacks.

Meanwhile in Cairo, Arab League chief Amr Mussa said Arab states will play no part in a coalition against terror planned by the U.S. if Israel is involved.

"Arab states cannot participate in an alliance against terrorism that includes Israel," Mussa said in an interview with the Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite channel carried by Egypt's Mena news agency.

The secretary general said Israel was continuing to kill Palestinians and destroy their homes in the occupied territories, the agency reported.