MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax-AVN) - The new Afghan administration will make every effort to find Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar and bring these individuals to trial, Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim Khan said.
The Afghan armed forces are now "actively destroying terrorist groups" in Afghanistan, Fahim told a Tuesday news conference at Interfax.
The Afghan administration "is not simply working with the international anti-terrorist coalition, their task is also to work in the same direction to find bin Laden and Mullah Omar and bring them to trial in accordance with the law," Fahim said.
Fahim avoided evaluating the statement made by U.S. President George W. Bush about the existence of "an axis of evil" in the world, saying that "now there are enough problems in Afghanistan itself."
Fahim said the Afghan government will continue fighting terrorism "until normal life is resumed in Afghanistan and the threat of terrorism from its territory is eliminated."
In response to the question as to when the first contacts between Afghanistan and Russian military advisors took place, Fahim said that "when our people were fighting international terrorism and the Taliban, there was a need to coordinate the efforts of our people and countries interested in stopping terrorism."
At the same time, "these were not advisor contacts, these were talks aimed at coordinating efforts," the Afghan minister said.