Afghanistan: New leader meets exiled king

The head of Afghanistan’s new interim government has arrived in Rome to discuss the country’s future.

Hamid Karzai is due to meet the country’s exiled king, Mohammed Zaher. It is hoped the former ruler may be the key figure to unity in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the American military were today holding al-Qaida fighters on a US Navy ship amid the intense hunt for more with help from Afghan tribal leaders.

Focus still remains on the capture of Osama bin Laden.

As tribal militiamen and US Special Forces pursued remnants of al-Qaida in the caves of Eastern Afghanistan, three captured foreign members of the terrorist group are being held with two Taliban fighters on the USS Peleliu.

The two Taliban fighters are the American and Australian captured in the past few weeks.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: "There are still any number of al-Qaida loose in that country, that’s why we are there, that’s why we are chasing."

Pakistan also has dozens of prisoners it has caught fleeing Afghanistan.

These prisoners will be handed over to American troops when the planned detention centres are ready. US officials are believed to be interviewing the Pakistan prisoners.