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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two years after President Bush (news - web sites) said Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) was wanted dead or alive, America's new Afghan envoy said on Tuesday the United States is redoubling efforts to find him and other leaders of both al Qaeda and the Taliban.
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The new U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-born diplomat who is to be sworn in on Monday and depart for Kabul on Tuesday, said more help is needed from Afghan citizens particularly along border regions of Pakistan that the elusive bin Laden and top aides might be crossing into.
"We're going to redouble our efforts," Khalilzad told a group of reporters. With new funding for Afghanistan (news - web sites) approved by Congress, the United States plans to "take the fight to the Taliban extremists and to go after the al Qaeda leadership," he said.
Bin Laden, his top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri and ousted Taliban leader Mullah Omar remain at large after the U.S.-led toppling of the Taliban from control of Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They have eluded a fierce manhunt based on Bush's order that bin Laden was wanted "dead or alive."
The Arabic television station Al Jazeera a month ago broadcast two audio tapes purportedly from bin Laden that vowed more suicide attacks inside and outside the United States and warning that all countries backing Washington over Iraq (news - web sites) were targets.
Khalilzad said as part of the effort to find bin Laden, attempts will be made to convince Afghans that turning them in will lead to a more peaceful country.
"We're going to try to engage and involve more Afghans in different parts of the country, to participate in this effort with information, with other kinds of help that they can provide," he said.
Dismissed as a spent force largely on the run only months ago, al Qaeda has taken responsibility for bombings in Istanbul on Saturday and may have launched similar attacks in recent weeks in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Nasiriyah as well as Riyadh and Jakarta.
There are concerns in Washington about the stability of the Afghan government amid renewed violence by members of the Taliban and al Qaeda, regional warlords flexing their muscles and drug lords and other criminals operating freely.
Khalilzad said the Taliban's numbers are only in the hundreds.
He said help was needed from Pakistan to stop cross-border raids.