US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld headed for Saudi Arabia today saying he would not raise the highly-sensitive question of US warplanes using the kingdom's air bases for any strikes on Afghanistan.
"We are not going to be making requests of the Saudi Arabian government. We have a long-standing relationship with them," said Mr Rumsfeld, a key figure in Washington's declared war on terrorism after the September 11th attacks on the United States.
Mr Rumsfeld’s plane stopped at Shannon for refuelling en route to Riyadh. The US Defence Secretary also intends to visit Egypt, Oman and possibly Uzbekistan during his Mideast tour.
He described US relations with Saudi Arabia as very good and said he simply wanted the Saudis to understand "first-hand...that our interest is in a sustained effort (against terrorism) and creating the conditions that will permit that."
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Mr Rumsfeld said US anti-terrorism efforts were not aimed at the Afghan people, rather they were focused on the Taliban rulers in Kabul and demanded that they hand-over Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden.
Asked whether US attacks against the Taliban were inevitable, Mr Rumsfeld said: "Well I guess time will tell."
He expressed sympathy for the Afghan people and described their situation as "heartbreaking".
Mr Rumsfeld said he had an inkling of bin Laden's whereabouts, but not an exact location.
"Ultimately, it would be intelligence that brought down terrorist networks, not military action," he said.
Asked whether he was unhappy with the level of co-operation from Egypt, Mr Rumsfeld said: "I'm not unhappy about anything, I'm a realist. I'm not there to negotiate any particular things. I'm there to solidify relationships with Egypt, a country that we have had a long relationship with."
Earlier Afghanistan's ruling Taliban made another plea for Washington to engage them in dialogue even as a fourth US aircraft carrier steamed towards what is already a massive US deployment in south Asia.
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NATO Secretary-General George Robertson at Alliance headquarters
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The United States and Britain served notice yesterday that the Islamic regime was in the crosshairs for protecting Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, the top suspects in the September 11th terror attacks on the United States that killed an estimated 5,700 people.
NATO's Mr George Robertson said Washington had provided what it called "clear and compelling evidence" implicating bin Laden in the attacks, allowing the alliance to activate - for the first time in its 52-year history - its Article Five clause, which states that an attack from abroad on one member is considered an attack on all.
However, Washington declined to offer any clues on what its evidence against bin Laden was and has refused to present it publicly, apparently out of fear of compromising classified information and sources.
Mr Rumsfeld's tour, which is to start with Saudi Arabia, the United States' strongest Arab ally, then go on to Oman, Egypt and Uzbekistan, was seen a high-level effort to rally those countries' governments to likely US action.