"He is not tired, is not running and is not worried,'' Newsweek magazine quoted a Taliban official as saying.

On Thursday, ABC television network had broadcast footage of an angry, fluent-English speaking man, claiming to be an American member of al Qaeda, who promised attacks that would make US streets "run red with blood." The tape had an electronic logo at the bottom of the image -- the same logo that appeared on the bin Laden tape and other Qaeda videos, the magazine said.

Just a few weeks ago, the news magazine said America's finest intelligence agents and analysts believed they might be on the verge of a big breakthrough in the manhunt for bin Laden. The net was closing in on a Qaeda operative in Pakistan, who, it was hoped, could lead them to bin Laden.

"It looked like we were really close, maybe one or two people away," one US official told Newsweek. "There was a lot of optimism around here."

At the same time, in the lawless tribal territories close to the Afghan border, 30,000 Pakistani troops were on a hunt for al Qaeda members. Backed by jets and helicopter gunships, Pakistanis had killed 246 al Qaeda members in an operation. But after eight months of military operations, bin Laden was nowhere to be found.

Intelligence agencies had warned earlier this month that the only missing piece of the puzzle in their "threat matrix" was the sight of bin Laden -- a possible signal for an attack.

With no evidence of an ongoing plot, but more than enough fear to go around, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the FBI to step up "intrusive" surveillance of suspected Islamic militants in the US, the magazine said.

The FBI is expanding its operations to a second-tier list of several hundred more suspects, with manpower from other agencies, including drug teams and US marshals, in the wake of the new threat issued by Laden.