The text of Mullah Mohammed Omar's remarks to a meeting of Afghan clerics gathered in Kabul: The ulema [clerics] have always guided the nation.

Our Islamic state is the true Islamic state in the world, and for this reason, the enemies of our religion and our country look on us as a thorn in their eyes and use different pretexts to try to finish it, including the one about the presence of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

They put the blame for Washington and New York on him. The question is how did Osama tell the pilots? And which airports did they use? And whose planes were those? The answer is that it is America.

In this regard, Afghanistan does not have the resources, and neither does Osama have the strength or resources.

He is not in contact with anyone and neither have we given permission to anyone to use the Afghan land against anyone.

We have not tried to create friction with America. We have had several talks with the present and past American governments and we are ready for more talks.

We have told America that we have taken all resources from Osama and he cannot contact the outside world. And we have told America that neither the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan nor Osama are involved in the American events. But it is sad that America does not listen to our word.

America always repeats threats and makes various accusations and now it is threatening military attack. This is being done in circumstances in which we have offered alternatives on the Osama issue.

We have said, if you have evidence against Osama, give it to the Afghan Supreme Court or the ulema of three Islamic countries, or have OIC [Organization of Islamic Countries] observers keep an eye on Osama.

But America rejected these, one by one. If America had considered these suggestions there would not have been a chance of such a great misunderstanding.

We appeal to the American government to exercise complete patience, and we want America to gather complete information and find the actual culprits.

We assure the whole world that neither Osama nor anyone else can use the Afghan land against anyone else.

And if even after this, America wants to use force and wants to attack Afghanistan and our innocent and oppressed people and wants to destroy the Islamic emirate, we seek your guidance and a ruling on the issue in the light of Islamic law.

Reuters