KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. planes bombed eastern Afghan mountain hideouts of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda fighters on Wednesday as surrender negotiations fell apart.
Afghanistan's nominal president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, complained that the new interim government about to take over had been imposed by foreign powers, but said he backed its designated head, Hamid Karzai.
U.S. planes continued to pound the mainly Arab al Qaeda fighters still holed up in caves and bunkers in the jagged Spin Ghar mountains.
But negotiations between unidentified al Qaeda members and anti-Taliban military leaders Hazrat Ali and Haji Mohammad Zaman came to nothing.
``The issue of a surrender seems to be untrue,'' anti-Taliban Northern Alliance spokesman Mohammad Habeel told Reuters.
``Those who have remained in the mountains are all Arabs and they want firstly to fight or retreat to Pakistan.''
Anti-Taliban fighters, backed by devastating U.S. air power and American special forces, made dramatic gains against al Qaeda in fierce fighting on Tuesday, before calling a pause.
Zaman said that al Qaeda forces had promised to surrender from Wednesday morning.
But CNN quoted Hazrat Ali as saying his forces would resume their assault unless al Qaeda agreed to hand over bin Laden and his 20 top aides in return for free passage for foot soldiers.
The deadline was Thursday afternoon.
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said a six-man shura, or council, of officials from the eastern province of Nangarhar had been sent to try again to persuade the al Qaeda to give up.
``The shura has rejected the conditions put forth by al Qaeda and the new delegation is trying to persuade them to lay down arms,'' it said, quoting shura sources.
The fighters, fiercely loyal to bin Laden, had demanded to be handed over to U.N. officials in the presence of diplomats from their own countries, AIP said.