ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 23 - Powell Offers Reward For Bin Ladin As US Prepares For War.

US Secretary of State Powell says in a TV interview: "I think in the near future we will be able to put out a paper, a document, that will describe quite clearly the evidence that we have linking him [Bin Ladin] to this [Sept. 11] attack. We are hard at work bringing all the information together - intelligence information, law enforcement information. I am absolutely convinced that the Al Qaida network, which he [Bin Ladin] heads, was responsible for this attack". He says the US offers a $25m reward for information leading to the apprehension of Bin Ladin. "I feel there might be somebody so motivated" in Afghanistan, he says, who could supply the US with the necessary information in exchange for the money. He indicates that any military action in Afghanistan will not be on the scale of the Gulf War. "Let's not assume there will be a large-scale move. I don't think we should even consider a large-scale war at this point". But Kabul officials say Bin Ladin has disappeared within the last two days. US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says: "We are not going to be deterred by comments that he may be missing. We don't simply believe it. We're going to find out". Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismisses the Taliban's claim as "laughable". He says: "They know their country. They have networks throughout the country, and it is just not believable that the Taliban do not know where the network can be located and found and either turned over or expelled". Ms. Rice indicates that Washington intends to topple the Taliban which she describes as "a very repressive and terrible regime". She adds: "The Afghan people would be better off without it. We will see what means are at our disposal to do that". The US has begun a vast mobilisation of ships, planes and ground forces. Advance units of the 82nd Airborne and 101st Air Assault divisions are reported by London newspapers to have arrived at bases in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. British military sources say elements of the Special Air Service Regiment are already operating inside Afghanistan, trying to track Bin Ladin and to seal escape routes. Rumsfeld says forces are being positioned to fight a war on terrorism that would involve more than Afghanistan. He says: "There's no way in the world that a network can function as effectively over such a long period of time, with such excellent finances and false passports and all of the intelligence information they had to have" without being "assisted and financed by states and by businesses and by non-governmental organisations and by corporations".