Allied military strategists appeared locked in a race against time yesterday as the British Defence Secretary hinted that winter snows might delay deployment of ground troops in Afghanistan until next spring.
The conflicting signal from Mr Geoff Hoon came just 24 hours after the Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, had braced British troops for a possible "winter war" in the Afghanistan mountains in pursuit of Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, following the aerial pounding of the Taliban regime's defence structures.
Reining in the increased expectation of an imminent ground assault, Mr Hoon told the BBC: "Everyone knows that the weather in a few weeks' time in Afghanistan will be difficult. Historically we know that the civil wars that have plagued Afghanistan tend to close down in the winter months." This, he said, would obviously be a major factor to be considered by the alliance's military planners.
As the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, and President Bush reviewed all aspects of their military, diplomatic and humanitarian missions - the head of the Royal Navy has said the allies should not be diverted from the war against terrorism by "sideshows" leading them into war "against everything you just don't like".
Mr Blair spoke to Mr Bush for 30 minutes yesterday by telephone. The two men exchanged their assessment of the situation on the sixth day of military action against Afghanistan, and Mr Blair brought the President up to date on his diplomatic swing through the Middle East.
Downing Street yesterday continued to insist there was no embarrassment following the "snub" on Thursday, when Saudi Arabia refused to receive him, as he had planned, in Riyadh. Having quoted "logistical difficulties" on Thursday, a Downing Street spokesman yesterday suggested that the Saudis actually wanted a "proper" formal visit rather than a lightning trip lasting just a few hours.
The Daily Telegraph interpreted the Saudi decision that a visit would be inappropriate as a serious setback for the Prime Minister's coalition-building efforts.
But there was no sign of any let-up in Mr Blair's determination to reassure the Muslim world, following his admission that the West was in danger of losing the propaganda battle in Muslim states.
As the first British opinion poll since the beginning of the allied action showed opposition to the extension of the war to Iraq, Admiral Sir Nigel Essenhigh said: "I think the aims here are to deal with terrorism of the sort we witnessed on 11th September. I think you need to be wary of translating that into a war against everything you just don't like."
Chancellor Gordon Brown yesterday ordered a freeze on the assets of another 38 individuals and organisations. The list included two companies involved in producing and selling Yemeni honey. The CIA believes bin Laden has used a chain of honey shops to smuggle cash, drugs and arms to his al-Qaeda network.