A senior US official Wednesday accused Somalia of harboring terrorists, saying "a number of ways are being considered to cope with the problem".
The possibility of terrorist cells being present in Somalia was real, US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Walter Kansteiner told reporters in Pretoria after a tour of Kenya, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.
The US government believed there was a connection between the local group AIAI and the al-Qaeda movement led by Osama bin Laden, and there seemed to be a flow of people and finances through that link, Kansteiner said.
"We are looking for ways to close off that connection. A number of ways are being considered," he noted.
US President George Bush has hinted that the ongoing war in Afghanistan could be extended to countries suspected of harboring terrorists.
In a television interview on Tuesday, US Vice President Dick Cheney declined to name the countries which could be targeted in the ongoing US campaign against terrorism, but said that both Iraq and Somalia could pose a threat to US security.
Kansteiner also blamed Somalia, which has no effective central government, for being hospitable to terrorists and terrorist cells. "Our first goal is to make it inhospitable," he said.
The US would work with its allies and Somalia's neighbors to find ways to ensure it did not provide such a safe haven, he added.
Kansteiner said the international community had been "somewhat absent" from Somalia, although aid was continuing to flow into that country.
Referring to the Sudan, which was also suspected by the US of harboring terrorists, Kansteiner said the country had been cooperating with the US-led counter-terrorism campaign for some time, and this collaboration had reached new levels since the September 11 attacks.
"We appreciate Khartoum's relationship with us. The long-term cooperation is driven by the internal Sudanese situation, particularly the peace process," he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Osman Taha was quoted as saying he saw no reason for a US strike on his country as part of the anti-terrorism campaign.
Kansteiner praised the US' cooperation with African governments in its counter-terrorism campaign, calling it "terrific".
The cooperation, he said,included information-sharing, financial oversight and the monitoring of people flows.
"The coordination and cooperation from sub-Saharan Africa has been very good," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 13, 2001)
