Al-Qaeda 'faces funding crisis'

Al-Qaeda is in its worst financial state for many years while the Taliban's funding is flourishing, according to the US Treasury. Senior Treasury official David Cohen said al-Qaeda had made several appeals for funds already this year. The influence of the network - damaged by US efforts to choke funding - is waning, he said

The Taliban, meanwhile, are in better financial shape, bolstered by Afghanistan's booming trade in drugs. According to Mr Cohen, the al-Qaeda leadership has already warned that a lack of funds was hurting the group's recruitment and training efforts.

"We assess that al-Qaeda is in its weakest financial condition in several years and that, as a result, its influence is waning," Mr Cohen said from Washington. But he added that as the organisation had multiple donors who were "ready, willing and able to contribute" the situation could be rapidly reversed.

The biggest problem, however, would be if the Taliban and al-Qaeda were to cooperate on matters of finance and training. This is not an unlikely scenario as they have similar goals and ideology. They also share the same battleground. However, there seems to be some doubt among analysts that this level of cooperation is now possible as the Taliban may see that their previous links with al-Qaeda caused them to lose power in Afghanistan after 9/11.