American forces take custody of more prisoners, seeking information on Osama bin Laden

"I think it would be a mistake to say al-Qaida is finished in Afghanistan at this stage," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference

U.S. forces are helping anti-Taliban Afghans clear caves "one by one" in the Tora Bora area of eastern Afghanistan, the last bastion of the al-Qaida before the group abandoned the area Monday.

Rumsfeld held the news briefing shortly after returning from Brussels, Belgium, where he attended a NATO defense ministers meeting. Rumsfeld called "nonsense" a German official's contention that he told the meeting that Somalia would be America's next target in the war on terrorism.

Rumsfeld said the only time he mentioned Somalia was when he was listing countries that shelter or sponsor terrorists and may also have tried to acquire or develop weapons of mass destruction.

"The German was wrong. He probably didn't mean to be, but he's wrong," Rumsfeld said.

U.S. Marines are expanding a detention center at the southern city of Kandahar's airport, Rumsfeld said. Originally, the center was meant to hold as many as 300 al-Qaida or Taliban prisoners, but Rumsfeld said it would be expanded to a 500-person capacity.

U.S. helicopters ran night missions Wednesday through the mountain valleys of the rugged Tora Bora area.

"It's a very large area, forested, valleys, a lot of places for people to hide, so I would say that we're using everything that we can," said Pentagon spokesman Richard McGraw.

"You use whatever intelligence means that you have," he said, mentioning unmanned spy planes, satellites, reconnaissance airplanes and assets on the ground.

Asked if Americans were pushing the search inside neighboring Pakistan to track al-Qaida fleeing there, McGraw said he didn't know.

The United States is using skyborne intelligence-gathering equipment over Pakistan, Rumsfeld said. He did not say whether that meant U.S. forces were flying planes or drones inside Pakistan or simply getting information from satellites overhead.

Pakistan has allowed other coalition aircraft - including combat aircraft - access to its airspace.

Officials also said there have been few clues about bin Laden's whereabouts since his voice was heard over short-range radio channels in Tora Bora last week. They acknowledge they don't know if he is in Afghanistan or whether he is alive.

About 200 of his fighters are believed to have escaped into Pakistan in recent days, said one U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, more al-Qaida prisoners were rounded up Wednesday, as FBI agents prepared to join CIA operatives and American troops in interrogating more than a dozen already taken into U.S. custody.

And there was a deadly revolt among prisoners being moved to a jail in Pakistan. Seven al-Qaida fighters and six police were killed when the captives seized weapons from their guards, the Pakistani government said. Others may have escaped.

Inside Afghanistan, a handful of terrorist militiamen were captured overnight without resistance, said an Afghan alliance commander speaking at the cave and tunnel complex in the mountains that had been al-Qaida's last Afghan stronghold.

Twenty prisoners so far have been handed over to the United States. Fifteen prisoners from the northern Afghanistan city Mazar-e-Sharif were turned over Tuesday to U.S. Marines at a newly created jail at the American base in Kandahar, where FBI agents familiar with the Sept. 11 attacks arrived to help with questioning.

From among thousands held by Afghan opposition forces, the 15 were picked "because we concluded, in conjunction with people holding them, that these were people who might have important information and might be themselves senior people," said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

FBI agent Thomas K. Knowles said questioning had not begun Wednesday, and legal and practical formalities must be completed.

He said none of the 15 was among the 22 on the U.S. list of most- wanted terrorists.

"They are young fighters," he said. "We are still trying to figure out who we want to talk to, who has information."

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Associated Press reporter Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.

AP-WS-12-19-01 1615EST