'We may not find Bin Laden'

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has admitted for the first time that the Americans and their allies may not be able to capture Osama bin Laden - although he does believe that the Taliban regime in Kabul will be toppled.

Mr Rumsfeld made the admission to USA Today. He said: "Yes I think there will be a post-Taliban Afghanistan. That is easier than finding a single person. There are lots of countries. He's got lots of money and he's got a lot of people who support him, and I just don't know whether we will be successful. It would be highly desirable to find him."

Tony Blair today said that it would be better that Bin Laden was killed in the fighting, and said it is unlikely the Saudi renegade would be brought before a court of law. The remarks by Mr Blair and Mr Rumsfeld reflect increasing concern over the level of support for Bin Laden throughout the Middle East, especially in his native Saudi Arabia.

It is recognised that he still gets extensive financial support from the complex network of Saudi banks. Intelligence sources have accused the regime of paying him "baksheesh" (bribes) not to operate in the kingdom. It is also thought that the Saudis have been funding his activities in north Africa and the Caucasus as well as giving backing to al Qaeda cells worldwide.

Meanwhile, Afghan elders meeting in the northern Pakistan town of Peshawar today called for the US to suspend its bombing campaign. The meeting called for a full assembly of tribal leaders - a Loya Jirga - to decide what regime should take over the country.

The elders say they fear the Northern Alliance might try to fill the vacuum left by a sudden collapse of the Taliban regime. "If that vacuum were filled by a particular group through military operations," said statement from the meeting, "It would turn to a new phase of bloodshed and disorder."

Mr Rumsfeld's admission comes as a disagreement over tactics has led to a delay of the announcement that British ground troops are to be deployed for operations in Afghanistan.

An announcement had been expected from Downing Street yesterday that more than 1,000 specialist troops, the carrier Illustrious and several squadrons of RAF GR4 Tornados and GR7 Harriers are to be assigned to Operation Veritas - the British part of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom.

Concern about how the US intended the British troops to be used has led to the delay. There have also been difficulties in persuading a friendly Gulf state to give bases to UK jets flying sorties into Afghanistan. Last week the head of Britain's armed forces Admiral Sir Michael Boyce made an unscheduled visit to the United States to discuss deployments and tactics with the US commander in charge of operations in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks, at the headquarters of US Central Command in Tampa Florida.

Admiral Boyce has argued that American plans for "pinprick" search-and-destroy raids - like the three-hour mission of the Rangers around Kandahar last weekend - are unlikely to succeed on their own, and troops are likely to have to be put on the ground for several weeks.

"The quick pinprick operation will be valid for certain targets where you have really good intelligence," Admiral Boyce told the New York Times today. He added: "Sometimes one might have to stay longer to achieve a proper reconnaissance of the area you are looking at. It is conceivable that we could conduct an operation for a period of days, and perhaps even conceivably for weeks."

? Princess Diana's Memorial Fund today urged the US and Britain to stop using cluster bombs in Afghanistan. Writing in The Times, the charity's chief executive, Andrew Purkis, warned that the weapons posed a threat similar to landmines. He writes: "These weapons are prone to missing their targets and fail in significant numbers to explode. They then pose a serious longterm threat to civilians."