Afghan villagers say an American air strike has killed more than 100 civilians as US forces combed rugged mountain terrain for fugitive Osama bin Laden, but the US officials said the planes hit a legitimate military target.

Reports from the stricken village in eastern Paktia province said huge craters blasted by bombs were visible. Amid the destruction were scraps of flesh, pools of blood and clumps of what appeared to be human hair.

A US military spokesman said the attack by two Air Force B-1B bombers and a B-52 in Qalaye Niazi, about 4 km north of the provincial capital Gardez, struck and destroyed a compound used by bin Laden's al Qaeda fighters and their Taliban allies.

Two surface-to-air missiles were fired at the bombers during the raid, according to Navy Lieutenant Commander Matthew Klee, a spokesman at the command's Tampa, Florida, headquarters.

"You don't have a village launching surface-to-air missiles at aircraft," he said. "You have a known al Qaeda-Taliban leadership compound."

This is the second time since fighting in Afghanistan died down that local leaders have accused the United States of causing major civilian loss of life in mistaken air raids.

The first raid, 10 days ago, hit a convoy of tribal leaders heading for the capital to take part in the inauguration of the new Afghan interim government. Witnesses said around 60 civilians were killed.

Bombing halt seen

Afghan tribal leaders demanded an immediate end to US bombing in the area. "The attacks must end. The Americans should stop bombing," said Haji Saifullah, head of the area's tribal council.

Saifullah said 107 people were killed in the raid, including women and children. All were all civilians and none was a member of the ousted Taliban or al Qaeda.

But Klee said there was no "collateral damage" in the raid, using military terminology to indicate that no civilians were accidentally killed.

Bin Laden is wanted dead or alive by President George W Bush for allegedly masterminding the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington that killed almost 3,300 people.

His whereabouts are unknown but US officials believe he is probably still alive and may have slipped across the Afghan border into Pakistan.

The US Central Command said Pakistan had sent 25 more captured bin Laden loyalists for questioning, bringing the number in US custody to 180.

Of the total, 164 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters were being held at a makeshift prison built by US Marines at Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan, said Air Force Major Bill Harrison, a spokesman for command headquarters.

Seven were being guarded by troops from the US Army's 10th Mountain Division at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, including five new arrivals from Afghan prisons in Kabul, and one in the northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif, Harrison said.

The other eight detainees, including American John Walker Lindh, were being held on the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea.

Large-scale food aid

The Pentagon has begun preparations to bring an undetermined number of al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners to the US Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba's southeast tip for further interrogation.

In Rome, the United Nations' World Food Programme said it had more than doubled the amount of food aid delivered to Afghanistan this month compared with November.

So much food has reached Afghanistan that the WFP said it planned to scale back aid future deliveries and focus on people in drought-stricken areas such as the central highlands and the north-eastern province of Badakshan.

The new Afghan administration and Britain initialled an agreement on the deployment of the International Security Assistance Force, which has been authorized by the UN Security Council to fill the security vacuum in Afghanistan.

British General John McColl will lead the force, which is expected to swell in the next few weeks to about 4,500.

Also in the region, India welcomed a Pakistani crackdown on anti-Indian militants and opened the door to top-level talks that could help defuse fears of war amid a massive military build-up.

The news would have brought relief in Washington, which is keen to ensure that the stand-off does not affect its continuing military campaign in Afghanistan.

Times Square tradition

India and Pakistan have been locked in the biggest military build-up in almost 15 years. It follows a bloody attack on parliament in New Delhi which India blamed on Pakistani-backed militants.

Bush telephoned both Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, urging them to defuse the crisis.

In New York City, still trying to recover from the September 11 attack that demolished the two mighty towers of the World Trade Centre, new Mayor Michael Bloomberg prepared to take office in a handover with outgoing Mayor Rudolph Guiliani.

Many thousands of people were expected to stream to Times Square for the traditional New Year's Eve celebrations.

Nearly three months into their military campaign to track down bin Laden, US forces in Afghanistan will see in the New Year with little idea of his whereabouts or even if he has survived the air raids so far.

The Saudi-born Islamic radical was last seen looking tired and gaunt in a videotape that surfaced last week but had apparently been made earlier in December.

"The latest intelligence we've had indicates that the high probabilities are that bin Laden is still alive," Senator Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said.

"Where he is, is a question mark. The trail has gone cold as to whether he's still in the caves of Tora Bora or, in fact, has slipped into Pakistan," he said.

© Reuters