Palestinian sought in Y2K plot; U.S. warns Taliban

NICOSIA [MENL] -- A Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship is being hunted, suspected of being linked to plans by Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden to attack U.S. targets over the millennium.

Authorities in Islamabad said police in Pakistan were looking for Abu Eyad, a colleague of Khalil Deek, the Jordanian national arrested last week in Pakistan and extradited to Amman. Eyad was believed to be in the city of Peshawar near the Afghan border.

Intelligence sources believe Eyad has already escaped to Afghanistan and has rejoined Bin Laden. So far, Afghanistan's Taliban ruling militia has refused to extradite Bin Laden to the United States.

In Washington, the United States said it would hold Taliban responsible for any Bin Laden attacks. U.S. officials dismissed assurances from Taliban, under United Nations sanctions, that Bin Laden is unable to launch terrorist attacks.

"We don't take seriously, I'm afraid to say, statements that have emerged from the Taliban concerning Bin Laden," State Department deputy spokesman James Foley said. "We have reliable information that Bin Laden is in frequent contact with terrorists and his supporters in various parts of the world and the group indeed uses modern communications."

Earlier, Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan, Sayed Mohammad Haqqani, said the Taliban, have deprived Bin Laden of his telephone and fax machine. "Just to bring down the concerns of the international community we have taken communications from him," Haqqani said.