August 27, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 17,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said after talks here on Monday that ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which had been strained by Islamabad’s support of the former Taliban regime, were gaining strength.

“Today’s visit is a further step towards strengthening and deepening relations and ties between both governments, both countries and both nations,” Abdullah told AFP after talks with Pakistan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Inamul Haq.

Abdullah and Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani arrived in the Islamabad earlier for two days of talks with their Pakistani counterparts and a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.

Abdullah held talks with Haq at the foreign office, while Ghani met Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz.

The trip is only the second to Pakistan by Abdullah, a key powerbroker of the Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban regime.

OSAMA:Afghan Foreign Minister also said that while there was no evidence of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, he believed the suspected terror mastermind was outside Afghanistan.

“We tried very hard to find him in Afghanistan... there is a likelihood that it (Osama’s location) could be outside our borders,” Abdullah told AFP after a meeting here with his Pakistani counterpart Inamul Haq. “Certainly it is not based on proved facts, because otherwise it would have been a different situation.”

He was speaking after Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan scoffed in response to a question about Abdullah’s reported surmisings that bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous border tribal areas.

“He (Abdullah) should collect the 25 million dollars that are offered as a prize. If I knew, I would. These are just claims, everyone keeps making all sorts of claims,” Khan told a routine weekly press briefing.

Abdullah said he had earlier stated that Osama and his followers “are outside our borders, perhaps in Pakistan”.

But on Monday he was more general, saying the man blamed for the Sept 11 terror attacks on the United States was “hiding somewhere in this region”.

“It is of course a threat to every country, every state, every state as a leader of a terrorist organisation,” he said.