The US took advantage yesterday of the political and military momentum in its Afghan campaign to launch a new political offensive to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
Shaking off the administration's previously declared reluctance to micro-manage the peace process, the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, pledged reengagement of the US in the process and to dispatch a new special representative to the region to broker talks.
On the ground in Afghanistan the battle for Kandahar and Kunduz continued amid repeated reports of attempts by Taliban leaders, including, according to one report, Mullah Mohammad Omar, to negotiate surrenders.
On the road between Kabul and Kandahar, four Western journalists were taken from a convoy by bandits or Taliban and shot.
The Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Renato Ruggiero, said in Brussels that based on reports from the scene it appeared the four were killed.
Those missing were a television cameraman and a photographer working for the Reuters news agency; a journalist with the Spanish daily El Mundo; and a journalist with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
The Northern Alliance tightened its siege on the last Taliban bastion in the north, Kunduz, where foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden reportedly were preventing a Taliban surrender. Refugees said that up to 300 Taliban fighters were shot - apparently by their own side - as they tried to surrender on Friday. Reports of other killings on a smaller scale have also emerged in recent days.
The US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, said that in Kandahar there is a "standoff". "There are southern tribes that are applying pressure and engaged in discussions [with the Taliban], and there's firing and the US, coalition forces, are providing some air support," he told a Pentagon briefing.
Responding to questions about whether the US would honour locally negotiated surrender agreements which allowed Taliban leaders or al-Qaeda fighters to go free, Mr Rumsfeld said the US would not be happy to see any agreement which allowed foreign fighters to flee the country. They should be jailed, he said. In western Afghanistan, Alliance officials showed journalists a grave near Shindand military airport which they said contained the bodies of 27 anti-Taliban fighters massacred before the Islamist militia fled the city.
In Kabul the UN's special representative, Mr Francesc Vendrell, has continued a series of meetings with opposition leaders and is expected to announce that he has agreement for a meeting on Saturday in Germany to put together a broad coalition to form an interim government.
There remains some confusion about whether the former King Mohammad Zahir Shah (86), now based in Italy, will participate in the talks but UN diplomatic sources expressed confidence that he would.
Mr Powell's speech in Louisville, Kentucky, in which, as anticipated, he indicated US support for a viable Palestinian state, contained an emotional appeal to both parties to lift their eyes to the potential of the region and return to ceasefire and the negotiating table.
"But at the end of the day," he said, Israelis and Arabs - "especially Palestinian leaders" - must "face up to some fundamental truths" and make hard, courageous decisions to bring lasting peace to the torn region. They include a vigorous Palestinian crackdown on terrorists, he said, and Israel's eventual withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza.
"Israeli settlement activity has severely undermined Palestinian trust and hope," Mr Powell said. "It pre-empts and prejudices the outcome of negotiations, and in doing so it cripples chances for real peace and security."
His words, which are more likely to chime with Israel's Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, than the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, reflect the huge pressure that the administration has come under from moderate Arab allies to reinvolve itself in peace initiatives.
Mr Powell will send his friend, former Marine commander and US Middle East commander, Gen Anthony Zinni, as special representative to the region.
