September 29th, 2001 Posted: 1701 GMT

America is denying reports five of its Special Forces troops have been captured by the Taliban.

A respected TV news network in the Middle East has reported that the five were seized by Afghan security forces, but the Pentagon and the Taliban deny the claims.

Qatar's al-Jazeera station said a military source from bin Laden's al Qaeda group claimed the armed men were arrested on the Iranian border.

Two of the three were reportedly Afghans with US citizenship. "They had some modern weapons and some maps of al Qaeda sites," the station said. "They were on a reconnaissance mission to know the territory of al Qaeda". He said pictures of the men would be released soon.

The television network has good contacts with bin Laden and has carried interviews with the Saudi dissident, Sky's Colin Brazier said from Islamabad. This week it claimed to have been sent a fax from bin Laden denying responsibility for the terror attacks.

But the claims were dismissed as "totally wrong" by the Taliban's defence minister Mullah Obaidullah. And Kabul's official news agency said the report "was not true and has no basis".

Colin Brazier said the confusion may have arisen because the al Qaeda network could have detained the men and not the Taliban regime.

A senior source in the White House said on Friday that four and five-man teams were already in Afghanistan scouting out possible targets. It had been queried why Washington had unofficially acknowledged Special Forces were in Afghanistan.

Sky's defence analyst Francis Tusa said it may have been because the White House had lost contact with the team and were "preparing" the American public for possible losses.

The Taliban has refused to hand over bin Laden, believed to be hiding out in the Afghan mountainside, but says it has delivered an edict requesting he leave the country.