November 4, 2001	Sunday	Shaba’an 17, 1422

DUSHANBE, Nov 3: Tajikistan could allow US forces to use one of its military bases for their operations against the Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan, the foreign minister of the central Asian nation said Saturday.

The statement by Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov came as US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in the country for talks with its leaders over the US-led war.

When asked by a reporter if Tajikistan would provide facilities, Nazarov replied only: “We first have to check the condition of the airport and the possibilities for it to be used.”

Afghan opposition members said Rumsfeld could meet with Northern Alliance leader General Abdul Qassim Fahim during his visit, in addition to seeing Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov and other officials.

Rumsfeld’s arrival came hours after US planes began bombing Taliban positions close to Afghanistan’s 1,200-kilometre-long border with Tajikistan.

The defense secretary arrived in Tajikistan after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Ivan Ivanov in Moscow earlier Saturday.

He is to travel on to Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India — all key allies in the US-led war against Afghanistan’s Taliban regime — before returning to Washington on Monday.

Taliban warning: Afghanistan’s Taliban regime on Saturday issued strong warnings to journalists not to enter the country illegally, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.

“We have reports that US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British Intelligence agencies are sending spies disguised as journalists,” Taliban’s intelligence chief for Jalalabad, Mulla Tajmir Jawad, told AIP.

“Any media personnel entering Afghanistan illegally would be charged of spying and be put on trial,” the intelligence chief said.

He said that Taliban’s supreme leader, Mulla Mohammad Omar, ordered release of the French journalist, Michel Peyrard, at the request of his family and French government.

Michel Peyrard arrived on Saturday evening in Pakistan through Torkham border and was received by the French ambassador to Pakistan.—AFP/dpa