A Taliban spokesman confirmed over CBS-Radio that the US had bombed Khost and Jalalabad last night, but said Bin Laden had survived the attack.

World reactions to US' unilateral action was extreme if mixed illustrating the post-cold war polarisations world-wide.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin describing it as ``outrageous'', while Britain, Germany and Israel strongly supporting the American action.

The Arab league, condemning the ``Rambo-style'' attacks, said that US action was a threat to the security and stability of the Middle-East.

Israeli reactions were obviously supportive of the aggression. Defence minister Yitzhak Mordechai said ``the war against terrorism wherever it may be must be incessant, it is needed to guarantee the security and stability of the world.''

Meanwhile, radical Palestinian group Hamas termed the attack on Sudan as that on ``whole Arab and Islamic world'', and threatened to strike at US And Israeli installations.

Iraq and Libya, known foes of America, condemned the ``revulsive'' and ``unjustified'' action. ``Not only do we protest and condemn the American action against Sudan and Afghanistan but we express revulsion over the policies of the United States,'' an Iraqi spokesman said after a meeting of the revolutionary command council, the country's highest policy-making body.

``We are ready to act on the regional and international level with all of those who oppose the aggressive and dangerous American policies,'' Iraq's spokesman was quoted as saying.

Libya, whose leader Muammar Gaddafi telephoned Sudanese president Omar Hassan-al-Bashir, said Libyan people were supporting Sudan ``in the fight against this aggression''.

``We reaffirm our condemnation of terrorism, including the organised state terrorism exerted by America,'' Libyan Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Tripoli.

Meanwhile Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN, which Clinton conveniently chose not to consult or seek cooperation from for this attack, reacted cautiously, saying he was concerned over the development.

China, in its initial guarded response, said the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which prompted American action, should be dealt with through the United Nations and international law.

The first world leader whom Clinton talked to after the action in Sudan and Afghanistan, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, strongly supported the US action saying ``the atrocities this month in Nairobi, Dar-es-Salaam, and Omagh (Northern Ireland) have shown the pain and suffering that terrorism can bring to innocent people.''

Reports from Australia quoted prime minister John Howard terming the bombings as ``entirely justified'' and said ``any country is entitled to act in self-defence and to embark upon a retaliatory strike where there is a clear attack upon its own citizens...''

Japanese premier Keizo Obuchi, expressing guarded support to the US action, said ``although we are still investigating the facts of the matter at present, I can understand the resolute attitude taken by the United States against terrorists.''