US President Mr George W Bush has approved a plan to intensify the effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, The New York Times reported, quoting senior administration and military officials.
It said the plan would apply new forces and new tactics to the task of hunting down bin Laden, and take advantage of better intelligence and improving weather along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The main force in the new effort is Task Force 121, a covert commando team of Special Operations forces and CIA officers that was involved in the capture of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in December, the Times said.
The force is gradually shifting its resources to Afghanistan to step up the search for bin Laden, accused mastermind of the September11th, 2001, attacks on the United States, and the ousted Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, it said.