On Monday, Afghan Taliban Chief Mulla Mohammad Omar called on the world's Muslims on Monday to support his movement, amid claims that US warplanes were preparing armed action against them.

``We call on Muslims throughout the world to stand by their brothers in Afghanistan,'' said a statement by Omar put out by the ``Embassy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan'', which represents the Taliban in the United Arab Emirates. ``The sole reason for the United States' hostility towards us is our attachment to the Sharia (Islamic law),'' the statement said. ``The United Nations are putting pressure on us, but we know very well that this is the result of American pressure,'' it continued. ``The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will makeno compromises or concessions on religion. We cannot change our positions which are founded on the Sharia,'' it said. The Jazira satellite television channel, broadcasting from Qatar, reported earlier that dozens of commandos had landed in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, for an operation against the Afghan-based alleged terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

It said later that one US fighter plane had also landed in Islamabad, and another at an airport close to the Pakistani border with Afghanistan, ready to carry out air strikes. It added that US subjects had been ``secretly'' evacuated from Pakistan.

Bin Laden, an exiled Saudi millionaire and Islamic militant, is thought by the US to be responsible for bomb attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam one year ago, which killed more than 200 people.