WASHINGTON, Oct 12: President George Bush on Thursday said the United States would be prepared to give the Taliban a “second chance” to handover Osama bin Laden but combined this with some of the harshest language he has used so far against Al Qaeda. However Taliban were silent on the offer.

In a televised news conference coming at the end of a long day when America marked the first month of the Sept 11 attacks and amidst official warnings of “credible” new threats of terrorism directed against the US, Mr Bush addressed a message to the Taliban, saying: “If you cough him (bin Laden) up and his people today, we’ll reconsider what we are doing to your country.”

Mr Bush’s 45-minute news conference, which began with a short prepared statement, was designed both to address doubts about the results achieved so far by the US-led military action against Afghanistan.

Seemingly ruling out any arbitrary handing over of power to the Northern Alliance, a possibility that is staunchly opposed by Pakistan, Mr Bush recalled the lesson learnt from America’s previous engagement in Afghanistan of leaving once the military objective was achieved, and said: “One of the things that we’ve got to make sure of is that all parties —— all interested parties —— have an opportunity to be part of a new government, that we shouldn’t play favourites between one group or another within Afghanistan. .. we’ve got to work for a stable Afghanistan so that her neighbours don’t fear terrorist activities again coming out of that country.”

This reflected reports here that the Bush administration has been having discussions over the past week to build a consensus among Afghan groups and coalition partners on a new Kabul government. Secretary of State Colin Powell is also due to take up this issue in talks in Pakistan and India, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Thursday: “We don’t want a Pashtun-totally-dominated or a Tajik-Uzbek-totally-dominated government. It has to be one that’s more broad-based and representative”.

The Washington Post, in a detailed report on a post-military action Afghan scenario, said UN officials were involved in the ongoing discussions and an interim council may be held before US military operations ended.

OIC: At his press conference, President Bush said he was “heartened” by the Organization of Islamic Conference statement issued on Thursday, saying it “spoke volumes about the attitude of Muslims nations”.

He also said he was “pleased to see that Mr (Palestine President Yasser) Arafat is trying to control the radical elements within the Palestinian Authority. And I think the world ought to applaud him for that.” But he said a meeting with President Arafat, which he has so far declined to hold, would depend on whether it would help the Middle East peace process. “If it turns out to be an empty photo opportunity that creates expectations that will become dashed, I won’t meet.”

In other developments on Friday, a fourth case of anthrax was reported, this time from New York where an NBC employee was said to have tested positive. The other cases, one fatal, have occurred in Florida, and the latest discovery can only add to the alarm raised by the earlier cases as well as by the FBI’s warning placing all relevant authorities on full alert.

The US also added 39 new names to the list of 27 groups and individuals issued earlier whose assets in America were ordered to be frozen because they were suspected of providing financial backing to terrorist groups. Six of the new names are entities, and the rest are individuals.

The Senate late on Thursday night passed a bill expanding the law-enforcement agencies’ ability to pursue suspected terrorists. The bill gives powers of roving wiretaps and extends detention of non-US citizens for up to seven days without specific charges. The bill had a lone opponent in the 100-member Senate, Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, of Wisconsin who feared the measure would adversely affect civil liberties.