Taliban - Can't find bin Laden

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Faced with U.S. demands to hand over Osama bin Laden, Afghanistan's Taliban leadership claimed Sunday it has been unable to find the alleged terrorist mastermind and advise him of a recommendation to leave the country.

American officials dismissed the claim, which came as a U.S. Defense Department team arrived in Pakistan to discuss military cooperation for a strike against bin Laden and his Taliban allies.

The Taliban's ambassador to neighboring Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said the militia's chief, Mullah Mohammed Omar, had sent emissaries to inform bin Laden of a decision Thursday by Afghanistan's Muslim clergy that he should leave the country voluntarily at a time of his choosing.

Zaeef said Taliban authorities had been searching for bin Laden for the past two days "but he has not been traced."

In Washington, top U.S. officials suggested the claim was a crude attempt to evade responsibility for complying with U.S. demands.

"We're not going to be deterred by comments that he may be missing," said Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser.

"We don't simply believe it," she said on the "Fox News Sunday" TV program.

Taliban must either hand over bin Laden and his lieutenants, allow access to their alleged terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and free two detained American aid workers, or "face the wrath of an international coalition," Rice said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also scoffed at the hard-line Islamic militia. Asked on CBS' "Face the Nation" if he believed the Taliban claim, Rumsfeld replied: "Of course not."

"They know where he is," he said. "They know their country. ... It is just not believable that the Taliban do not know where the network can be located and found and can be turned over."