Bush to decide on bin Laden tapes

President Bush is reported to be personally involved in the decision about whether or not to release the latest video tape on Osama bin Laden, with officials divided over whether to do so.

Transcripts of the tape are circulating among senior administration officials, one of whom told the New York Times that besides new admissions by the al-Qaeda leader implicating him directly in the September 11th attacks, the tape shows an amused bin Laden talking about the fact that some of those involved in the seizure of aircraft did not realise they were on suicide missions.

"He suggests that they just thought they were involved in a conventional hijacking," the anonymous official told the paper.

The Deputy Secretary of Defence, Mr Paul Wolfowitz, said there were intelligence concerns that sources might be compromised if the tape, found in Jalalabad, was released, and suggestions that its amateurish, stop-start quality might lead to claims it had been faked.

Mr Bush's spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, told journalists, however, that the president wanted to weigh security concerns against his desire to be as open with the American people as possible.

Briefing journalists in the Pentagon, Mr Wolfowitz expressed confidence that anti-Taliban forces had "substantially degraded" bin Laden's ability to operate, his communications and authority.

Today, three months to the day since the attacks on the US, Mr Bush will mark the occasion at 8.46 a.m. in a brief ceremony in the White House. Similar ceremonies are likely to take place around the world. Mr Bush is later expected to make a major speech on the role of the US military in the 21st century.

AFP adds: US Attorney General John Ashcroft sets off on a tour of several European capitals today to meet officials working on the inquiry into the September 11th attacks on the United States.

Mr Ashcroft is scheduled to visit London, Madrid, Berlin, Brussels and Rome before returning to Washington on Sunday.

The attorney general will meet police and justice ministry officials in each country who are in charge of the investigation into the attacks on New York's World Trade Centre and the Pentagon outside Washington.

The administration of President Bush has been criticised in Europe for implementing a series of domestic anti-terror efforts that some say infringe upon civil liberties. The measures include the creation of military tribunals to try non-US terror suspects and the government's ability to listen in on conversations between detained terrorist suspects and their attorneys.