Talk of stepped-up bin Laden hunt exaggerated, Afghan official

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's foreign minister sought Friday to play down reports of a heightened campaign to capture Osama bin Laden and said there had been no intelligence breakthroughs about the al-Qaida leader's location.

The United States has pledged a retooled and intensified offensive in the next few months to track top Taliban and al-Qaida figures along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The U.S. military in Afghanistan has said it is confident that bin Laden will be found this year.

Foreign Minister Abdullah took a more cautious tone.

"The missions now -- I wouldn't say it is as very special as is mentioned in some corners," he said after a ceremony with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw inaugurating a higher-security British Embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

The hunt "has been part of the efforts for the past two years, and it will continue," said Abdullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

Straw, speaking earlier to a news conference, declined to address questions about unconfirmed media reports of ongoing U.S. military sweeps in southern and southeastern Afghanistan.

Straw said only: "We would all like to see Osama bin Laden captured one way or the other."

Asked about any new intelligence, Abdullah said, "The intelligence continues -- I wouldn't consider it a new thing."

U.S. military officials have said they are planning a spring offensive in Afghanistan in the hopes of capturing bin Laden, former Taliban leader Mullah Omar and their associates.

Officials have said they are shifting members of Task Force 121 from Iraq to Afghanistan, after the elite team's role in capturing Saddam in December.

Revised U.S. tactics would include settling U.S. forces in communities, in hopes of improving local intelligence-gathering, the Americans have said.

Pakistan officials have pledged intensified sweeps on their own side of the border. Pakistan officials have taken a harder line in the search in recent weeks, including prosecuting local chiefs who failed to produce demanded information on any terror suspects hiding in border areas.