DUBAI (Reuters) - An Afghan Taliban diplomat said on Saturday that Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, a prime suspect in the terror attacks on the United States, was free to leave Afghanistan but would not be forced out.``If the man wanted to leave of his own will, we will not stop him. But if he wanted to stay in Afghanistan, we cannot make him leave,'' the Taliban charge d'affaires in the United Arab Emirates, Aziz al-Rahman, told Abu Dhabi television in an interview aired early on Saturday.
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday for the first time named bin Laden, sheltered by the Taliban in Afghanistan, as a suspect in the terror attacks on New York and Washington.
The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved a resolution authorizing President Bush ``to use all necessary and appropriate force'' in retaliation for the assaults.
Asked if there was any chance that the Taliban would consider handing over bin Laden to the United States to spare Afghanistan the prospect of military action, Aziz al-Rahman said in Arabic: ''Basically, this is not a consideration...We have no agreement with any country to extradite criminals or suspects to hand him over.''
He repeated the position of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement that bin Laden would be handed over to an Islamic court if Washington could prove his involvement the attacks.
``We have said from the beginning that if there was an investigation, if there was evidence, then let's have this evidence and we will study it. We have (Islamic) courts and we will transfer it (the evidence) to any court,'' he added.
The hard-line Taliban said on Thursday that bin Laden, who has a 5 million reward on his head for suspected involvement in the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, had told them he had no role in Tuesday's attacks.
Aziz al-Rahman said the Taliban ``shared with the American people their great tragedy'' but said the movement and the people of Afghanistan were innocent of any wrongdoing in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.