WASHINGTON Ñ Now that the Taliban has been defeated, the United States is in a quandary over the fate of thousands of Arab mercernaries fighting with Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden captured in Afghanistan.

At least 1,000 Saudis are believed fighting with Bin Laden and the Taliban movement. Saudi reports assert that about 50 of them have been killed. The Saudi daily Okaz said it has the names of 45 of those killed, Middle East Newsline reported.

Hundreds of Arab combatants have been captured in the battle for Bin Laden's main base in the Tora Bora mountains. The base was seized, but Bin Laden was not found.

"The Arab nationals are in the mountains and around 1,000 of them are hiding in Melawa," Afghan police official Hazrat Ali was quoted by the Afghan Islamic Press as saying.

In Washington, U.S. officials acknowledged that the detention and prosecution of the Arabs could encounter opposition from such countries as Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They said Washington might allow Arab nationals to be returned to their native countries for prosecution or rehabilitation.

"That's what Al Qaida is," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a Thursday briefing. "It's a group of foreigners. And they are there doing things that I think are enormously harmful to a peaceful and stable world."

On early Friday, the Taliban announced the surrender of Kandahar, the last stronghold of the collapsed regime. The Taliban began handing over their weapons to the Northern Alliance forces.

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