Afghanistan`s new rulers finalized a deal for foreign peacekeepers as a senior US official said fresh intelligence showed ``high probabilities`` that Osama bin Laden was still alive despite the US drive to destroy him and his al-Qaeda network of Islamic militants. As tensions crackled between India and Pakistan – nuclear rivals pushed close to war by an extremist attack on India`s Parliament this month -- the Pentagon said that the US marines would leave southern Afghanistan for unspecified new missions. Sen. Bob Graham, the head of the Senate select committee on intelligence, said that the hunt was still on for bin Laden, the man Washington blames for the September. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, which killed some 3,000 people. ``The latest intelligence we`ve had indicates that the high probabilities are that bin Laden is still alive,`` Graham said on a TV channel on Sunday.
``Where he is, is a question mark. The trail has gone cold as to whether he`s still in the caves of Tora Bora or in fact has slipped into Pakistan,`` across the border, he said. In Afghanistan, which has endured weeks of bombing as the US-led coalition sought to find bin Laden and topple his Taliban protectors, interim foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah said that a deal had been struck on the new International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) intended to stabilize the country following the Taliban`s collapse. ``An agreement has been achieved on the deployment of multinational forces,`` Abdullah said. ``We are not going to discuss details, but the agreement has been finalized.``
He did not say whether the deal had been signed yet. The ISAF, which is expected to involve 3,000 troops, was authorized by the UN Security Council.
Bureau Report