WASHINGTON, June 29 (News Agencies) - The United States on Friday refused to confirm reports that it had told the Taliban it would be held responsible if Osama bin Laden attacks U.S. targets, but called on the militia to expel the Saudi national.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker refused to elaborate on the reports by the Afghan Islamic Press, but repeated U.S. calls for the Taliban to hand over bin Laden, who Washington says carried out the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.
Reeker said the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, William Milam, met the Taliban's envoy, Abdul Salam Zaeef, in the Pakistani capital on Friday.
Milam passed on Washington's "continuing concern about the Taliban's harboring of the terror network of Osama bin Laden and of other terrorist organizations," Reeker said.
"As we've done before, he emphasized the seriousness of our concerns in light of recent threats and the need for the Taliban to deal with this issue."
Reeker said that Milam had emphasized that the Taliban must comply with U.S. resolutions that call for the extradition of bin Laden.
The AIP earlier quoted Zaeef as saying: "the ambassador said the U.S. will hold the Taliban regime responsible if Osama launched attacks against the United States."
Zaeef reportedly told Milam: "We do not consider the U.S. as our enemy, therefore, we cannot allow its opponents to use our territory against the United States."
Bin Laden lives in Afghanistan as a "guest" of Taliban rulers, who despite tough U.N. sanctions have refused to extradite him to stand trial in the U.S. on "terrorism charges".
The United States holds the wealthy Saudi dissident responsible for the 1998 bombings of its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people.
"I have given him full assurances that we will not allow Osama or any other person to use our soil against the United States or any other country," Zaeef said.
The Dubai-based Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) reported last week that bin Laden's supporters were planning attacks on U.S. and Israeli interests worldwide.
The U.S. has placed its forces in the Gulf on maximum alert for fear of attacks on the fifth anniversary of the 1996 bombing of a U.S. military base at Dhahran in Saudi Arabia this week.
