'Bin Laden not our top target'

America could live with the survival and even escape of Osama bin Laden provided his terror network was decisively crushed, one of Washington's fiercest "hawks" said today.

Deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz said: "Obviously the most important target, as much for symbolic as for operational reasons, is Bin Laden, but I don't think people should get swept away by the symbolism. He could go tomorrow and you would still have a very dangerous network, or you could clean up the whole network and he could be a fugitive in the mountains of Afghanistan. We would still like to get him, but it wouldn't make much difference".

Mr Wolfowitz warned that the campaign against al Qaeda had only just begun. "We are just getting into the networks, getting rid of some of the key leaders, starting to secure the intelligence that will lead us to people outside. One has to think about the network as a whole, and for that matter think of a variety of networks, because the more we learn about al Qaeda the more one is struck by how all these groups communicate with one another and co-operate with one another."

His comments came as the US Attorney General John Ashcroft claimed that a number of al Qaeda members were among the 1,100 people detained since the 11 September outrages.

Mr Wolfowitz, the number two in the Pentagon, said once the US campaign in Afghanistan was over it would still keep a small armed presence in the country. "Our goal is to leave as small a 'footprint' as possible,? he said. "That doesn't mean zero. In the first place we have a continuing interest in making sure Afghanistan is not only eliminated as a sanctuary for terrorists, but doesn't again become a sanctuary for terrorists."

Mr Wolfowitz, 58, said the arrival of more than 1,000 Marines in southern Afghanistan was primarily to support local Pathan commanders and help organise the armed opposition movement rather than fight the war for them. "I think they are closing in on Kandahar. All the reports we are getting suggest a steady but slow advance on Kandahar from various opposition groups."

He refused to be drawn on whether America would turn its attention to Saddam Hussein once the Taliban had been defeated. However he warned: "Every state that supports terrorism should be reconsidering its policy quite fundamentally."