Donald Rumsfeld

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he has no doubt some Taleban and al-Qaida fighters have found refuge in Iran after fleeing Afghanistan. Speaking on ABC television Sunday, Mr. Rumsfeld said Iran's border with Afghanistan is porous and Taleban and al-Qaida members are crossing it.

He said Iran has not followed Pakistan's example and placed troops along its border to keep al-Qaida and Taleban members out.

Mr. Rumsfeld added the United States has numerous reports Iran is also arming various factions inside Afghanistan in an effort to influence and destabilize the Afghan interim government.

Iran flatly denies helping the ousted Taleban. Tehran says it has despised Taleban since the fundamentalist Sunni Muslim regime took power in 1996. In Tehran Sunday, parliament Speaker Mehdi Karubi called on all Iranians to join in a mass rally February 11 to denounce the U.S. allegations and to commemorate the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice defended President Bush's description of Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil."

Mr. Bush says all three nations sponsor terrorism and seek weapons of mass destruction. Ms. Rice told Fox television Sunday nobody should pretend these are good regimes.

Critics say the phrase "axis of evil" is inaccurate and risks alienating U.S. allies in the war against terrorism.

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