Sunday November 18, 12:02 PM

Bin Laden "surrounded in south eastern Afghanistan" http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011118/1/1tem7.html British and US special forces have surrounded terror suspect Osama bin Laden in an area of 30 square miles (80 square kilometres) in southeastern Afghanistan, a British newspaper reported.

SAS and US commandos have been dropped by helicopter across the southern approach to the area, near the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, to prevent bin Laden from escaping into Pakistan, according to defence sources, the Sunday Telegraph said.

"The plan has always been to deny bin Laden space," said British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.

"The space he has to operate in is now very limited indeed," he added.

A British defence intelligence source told the paper that bin Laden was believed to be "static" somewhere to the southeast of Kandahar.

"For a variety of reasons we can be confident that he has not been able to move far," the source said.

On Saturday night the Taliban envoy to Pakistan refuted earlier claims that bin Laden had left the country with his wives and children.

"Osama is inside Afghanistan but I don't know whether he is in our territory or the area controlled by the Northern Alliance," Saleem Zaeef said.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has warned that bin Laden might have access to a helicopter that could try to take him to a possible rendezvous with a private jet in Pakistan.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001