Full article is at: http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/16/wusa16.xm l Bush finalises battle plan (Filed: 16/09/2001) AMERICA was last night assembling the biggest military strike force since the Gulf War as President Bush issued an ultimatum to Pakistan to back allied action or run the risk of being bombed. George W Bush: planning a sustained offensive In his bluntest terms yet, Mr Bush made clear that the United States was about to launch a sustained offensive against Osama bin Laden and his terror camps in Afghanistan. The Saudi Islamic fundamentalist was named for the first time by the President as the prime suspect in the suicide hijack attacks on New York and Washington that left almost 5,000 missing. American officials have made clear that they expect Pakistan, which is the nearest point for allied forces to attack bin Laden's base in neighbouring Afghanistan, to co-operate fully in the allied operation. In an uncompromising list of demands made to Pakistan's military leaders, US officials called for Islamabad to close training camps used by Islamic militants. The US demanded that Pakistan shares all its intelligence on bin Laden and the Taliban, an organisation which it created in 1994 and is still funding. Pakistan should also make available airspace to US warplanes and take action to cut off funding to any group allied to bin Laden, and to close its border with Afghanistan. If Pakistan failed to comply, US officials warned that the country ran the risk of being bombed in any future military action taken against Islamic terrorists. "We have been left with no doubt," said a senior Pakistan official. "We can no longer be a friend of bin Laden and the US. And if we don't opt for Washington then they will not only cut off economic funding, including that from the International Monetary Fund, but also see us as a potential target."
