The Taliban has been unmoved by the latest attempt to resolve the crisis that has led them to the brink of war with an American-led coalition determined to capture Osama bin Laden and punish them for giving him safe haven.
A delegation of senior Islamic clerics which met Taliban leaders on Friday said bin Laden had not been on the agenda. A member of the delegation said that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, had accused the US of intransigence.
"They told us that if America gives up its attitude of stubbornness and unfriendliness, then negotiations can be held with them," a delegate said.
The clerics -- who belong to the same Deobandi school of Islam as the Taliban and could hardly be described as liberals -- flew into Kandahar yesterday morning, accompanied by General Mahmood Ahmed, the head of Pakistan's intelligence agency. He led an unsuccessful government delegation to Kandahar last week.
In Kabul panic briefly swept across the city as continuous firing boomed from the surrounding hills. Officials later said Taliban gunners were testing their new defenses.
"We all thought the war with America had begun," one resident, who was having breakfast when the firing started, said. "I thought that my turn to die had come." In the city's mosques, preachers endorsed an earlier decision of Afghan clerics to ask Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan voluntarily, but also requested Afghans to fight any American assault.
"Jihad is the only way and we will not sit quietly by if America attacks us. All Muslims must defend their brothers and Osama if that becomes the bottom line," one said.
Another religious delegation is likely to set off for talks with Mullah Omar this weekend and the Taliban have asked for a meeting of Muslim states in 10 days time to discuss the crisis. Pakistan's foreign minister, Abdul Sattar, will attend the Organization of the Islamic Conference's meeting, which will be held in the Qatar capital, Doha.
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