Clerics ask bin Laden to leave Afghanistan

The Islamic clerics meeting in Afghanistan to discuss the fate of Osama bin Laden have urged him to leave the country, according to the Taliban Bakhtar news agency.

Hundreds of clerics from across Afghanistan converged on Kabul yesterday for a meeting to decide whether the Taliban Government should extradite bin Laden, the prime suspect in last week’s attacks in the United States.

Bakhtar reported this morning that "the Ulema (council of clerics) wants the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan to encourage Osama to leave Afghanistan but of his own free will".

The Taliban are likely to honour the council’s decision but it is unclear whether bin Laden will leave the country he has been hiding in for five years.

The Islamic clerics began talks yesterday at the request of the Taliban, who have been asked by US authorities to hand over bin Laden or face the wrath of the US military.

Yesterday, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, said he is willing to open talks with the United States but he also accused the US of unfairly blaming bin Laden for the attacks.

The Taliban have insisted that they have restricted bin Laden’s ability to communicate with the outside world and have taken all his weapons from him.

They have also said that the Americans have failed to deliver evidence of bin Laden’s involvement in last week’s attacks.