August 14, 1999
Web posted at: 12:41 a.m. EDT (0441 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. officials are trying to convince Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement to extradite Saudi exile Osama bin Laden to Egypt or Saudi Arabia for trial rather than the United States, NBC News reported Friday.

The United States would prefer to capture and put bin Laden on trial in a U.S. court, but supports a trial in either Egypt or Saudi Arabia as an alternative in order to end attacks on U.S. targets around the world allegedly orchestrated by him, NBC said.

U.S. officials have accused bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi exile, of masterminding the August 7, 1998, bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He is on the FBI list of 10 most-wanted fugitives.

A representative of Afghanistan's government told NBC that the Taliban has engaged in negotiations "several times" with U.S. representatives concerning a trial for bin Laden. His headquarters are based in Afghanistan.

Egyptian officials would like to try bin Laden on charges that he orchestrated an unsuccessful assassination plot against President Hosni Mubarak in June 1995 and was responsible for the November 1995 bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan, which killed 17 people, NBC said.

Saudi Arabia also wants to try bin Laden for a car bombing that killed five U.S. soldiers in November 1995, NBC added.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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