Its bombing campaign in Afghanistan winding down, the United States now pursues its war on terrorism through the courts and sends Marines to scour a remote Afghan compound for clues to the whereabouts of deposed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
In the Afghan capital, meanwhile, deployment of the multinational peacekeeping force begins to take shape.
But the trail of Osama bin Laden, identified by Washington as the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on America that killed nearly 3,300, appears to have gone cold in the mountainous expanse that divides Afghanistan from Pakistan.
US President George W Bush, recalling the pioneer spirit of his Texas heritage, has pledged repeatedly to capture bin Laden, a Saudi-born Islamic militant and the world's most wanted man, "dead or alive."
But for now, at least, Washington's attention was focused elsewhere.
In a court in Alexandria, Virginia, not far from the Pentagon that was badly damaged in the Sept. 11 suicide missions, Zacarias Moussaoui appeared to face the first charges filed in direct connection with the deadly attacks. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Dressed in a green jumpsuit with the word "Prisoner" on the back, Moussaoui, a 33-year-old French citizen of Moroccan descent, stood briefly to address the court during his arraignment.
"In the name of Allah I do not have anything to plead. I enter no plea. Thank you very much," a bearded Moussaoui said in accented English.
Moussaoui was charged with conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, to commit aircraft piracy, to destroy aircraft, to use weapons of mass destruction, to murder U.S. employees and to destroy property.
The judge entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf and set trial for October 14.
The hunt goes on
Thousands of miles away, a force of 200 Marines continued to search an area north of the Afghan city of Kandahar for any intelligence that would help operations against bin Laden's al Qaeda network and remaining Taliban forces.
There were also reports that U.S. Army Special Operations troops had joined the hunt for bin Laden and Mullah Omar. However, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke refused to confirm or deny those reports.
Officials in the southern city of Kandahar, spiritual home of the austere Taliban movement, said negotiations were under way to try to capture the fugitive cleric without bloodshed.
"We are still in contact with the people there to find a way to end this issue peacefully," said an official working for intelligence chief Haji Gullalai in Kandahar.
The local intelligence chief is hunting the reclusive supreme leader of the vanquished Taliban, who is believed to have taken refuge with 1,500 fighters near the town of Baghran, some 160 km northwest of Kandahar.
Peace force takes shape
As post-war Afghanistan faces the struggle to rebuild, a team from 12 nations contributing to a foreign security force in Kabul begins surveying the shattered Afghan capital.
The 25-strong team from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Romania met British troops at the force's headquarters in a dilapidated former sports club in the centre of of the city.
"Today marks the arrival of the multinational recce party from all the troop-contributing nations that intend to place forces into the International Security Assistance Force," said British Colonel Richard Barrons.
US Central Command has directed a massive air onslaught against the Taliban and bin Laden's al Qaeda network since October 7, but many Afghans want the bombing - blamed for hundreds if not thousands of civilian deaths - to stop.
Impoverished by more than 20 years of warfare, foreign invasion, anarchy and Taliban misrule, Afghanistan's New Year began on a bitter note, with charges that US bombs had killed 107 civilians at a village near the town of Gardez over the weekend.
The US military rejected the accusation from local Afghans, saying its planes had destroyed a compound used by al Qaeda and the Taliban.
A US intelligence official said the military believed its bombs had killed Taliban intelligence chief Qari Ahmadullah during the last week of December. "We think he's most likely dead," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier, the The New York Times newspaper quoted Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai as saying he was worried about the mounting civilian casualties.
"We want to finish terrorists in Afghanistan - we want to finish them completely ... But we must also make sure our civilians do not suffer," he told the paper.
An actor prevails
A UN spokeswoman said thousands of Afghans were trying to enter Pakistan, with nearly 5,000 arriving at the border town of Chaman and thousands more reported to be fleeing Kandahar.
"This is the first time in several weeks that we are seeing such a large number of arrivals from Afghanistan," said Fatoumata Kaba, adding that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees did not know why so many were trying to leave.
Finance Minister Hedayat Amin Arsala told Reuters he wanted the volatile Afghan currency stabilized, but without interfering with the markets and without creating inflation in one of the world's most devastated economies.
He estimated Afghanistan needed at least $US12 billion in foreign aid over the next five years.
In a rare glimmer of hope for an Afghan renewal, a troupe of actors staged the first play in Kabul since the reign of the Taliban, who had barred such entertainment - along with kite-flying and music - in line with their dour reading of Islam.
Using a bombed-out shell of a building as their setting, four actors staged a simple show for an audience of 100, including Minister of Culture Raheen Makhdoom and Minister for Women's Issues Sima Samar.
"They burned my theatre, they burned my art, they burned my house," lamented actor Najibullah, 39. I used to have plenty of spectators, who gave me generous applause and gifts. Now my spectators are nothing but coal dust."
© Reuters
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