One of President George W Bush's top advisers says the US "could not afford" to suspend attacks on Afghanistan over Ramadan.
Ms Condoleezza Rice, Mr Bush's national security adviser, indicated that the war will not be paused for the Muslim holy month, which begins on November 17th.
Already American defence secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld has split from British opposite number Mr Geoff Hoon when he said the month had not been a reason for the Taliban to stop fighting in the past.
Dr Rice said: "We have no choice but to try to go both to the source of this in Afghanistan, and to try to root these organisations out wherever we can.
"And we have to get about that business - we can't afford to have a pause."
Dr Rice said that she did not believe al Qaeda or the Taliban were likely to pause their activities for the month of fasting.
"We think that the best thing that we can do for the world, for all of the allies in the coalition, whether they are Muslim or not, is to make certain that this war on terrorism succeeds," she said.
"And that means we have to finish the mission. We do not believe that al Qaea or the Taliban or any of their kind are likely to be ones that are going to be observant of any kind of rules of civilisation."
The US has so far refused to scale back its attacks on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer, and Mr Rumsfeld has been clear that history does not show Islamic armies stopped for the holy month but Mr Hoon said the religious sensibilities "had to be taken into account".
AP