US holding senior Taliban figures
US defence officials say at least two senior Taliban members are being held in custody aboard the USS Peleliu, off the coast of Pakistan.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says they were captured in the past two days in Pakistan.
He is hopeful that they will give a "treasure trove" of intelligence leads in the bid to track down Osama bin Laden.
The two are among five prisoners being held aboard the ship.
Of the other three, one is an American who fought with the Taliban, one is an Australian associated with the Taliban and one is a Saudi Arabian official of a humanitarian organisation accused of having terrorist ties.
The names of the two Taliban officials and their positions within the organisation is not known.
Even though more than 100 al-Qaida fighters have been arrested by Pakistani authorities after fleeing Afghanistan's Tora Bora region this week, and others are being hunted by Afghan and US forces, Mr Rumsfeld says it is much too early to declare al-Qaida a defeated enemy.
He commented: "I would think that it would be a mistake to say that the al-Qaida is finished in Afghanistan at this stage.
"They certainly aren't functioning well.
"They're running, and they're hiding, and they're having difficulty communicating with each other, but a large number of them seem to behave in a fanatical way, and I suspect that we'll hear more of them."
