President Bush vowed last night to pursue the US-led war on terror into 2002 as Pakistan began thinning out troops patrolling its western border with Afghanistan in search of Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda fighters.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined Mr Bush in pledging to root out followers of bin Laden and provide support to Afghanistan's new government.
A senior Afghan official called on America to end the nearly three-month-long bombardment of his country, saying bin Laden and his cohorts were no longer there.
Pakistan began withdrawing troops from the Afghan border in response to rising tensions with India whose troops are building up on its eastern frontier. At the southwestern Pakistani border town of Chaman, a Reutersreporter saw Pakistani troops pulling out and packing up anti-aircraft guns installed at some checkpoints with Afghanistan.
But Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar denied Pakistan had pulled troops from the Afghan border.
"The answer is, no, we have not moved them," Mr Sattar said in a interview on CNN's Late Editionwith Wolf Blitzer, which was taped yesterday morning for broadcast later today. "We don't want to move them. But then we need help so that force is not used against Pakistan along the eastern border."
The two nuclear-armed rivals have massed troops along their borders in the biggest such build-up in 15 years following a December 13 attack on the Indian parliament, for which New Delhi blames two Pakistan-based militant groups fighting Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region. The attack left 14 people dead, including the five assailants.
In his weekly radio address to the American people from his ranch in Texas, Mr Bush said next year would require "our sustained commitment to the war" against terrorism.
"We cannot know how long this struggle will last. But it can end only one way: in victory for America and the cause of freedom," Mr Bush said, adding his war extended beyond Afghanistan. "The world should know that this administration will not blink in the face of danger and will not tire when it comes to completing the missions that we said we would do."
Mr Blair, in an advance copy of his New Year speech, said, "The international community ... can be immensely proud of the way it responded to the attack upon humanity that took place on September 11, and the UK can be proud of the role we are playing on all fronts, military, diplomatic, humanitarian."
He warned that the threat posed by Islamic militants remained. "Many thousands of terrorists have been trained in the terror camps of Afghanistan and have long since left there."
"They continue to pose a risk, and the international community must continue to be vigilant and determined in rooting them out and shutting down their networks. We will be," Mr Blair said.