The Taliban rejected reports its fighters in the northern city of Kunduz have agreed to surrender to Northern Alliance forces, the Al-Jazeera satellite television channel reported. "The office of Mullah Omar strongly denied that and the Taliban army chief Akhdar Othmani said the information was totally false," correspondent Mohammad al-Shuli reported from the southeastern city of Spin Boldak, close to the Pakistani border. The Taliban said its deputy defence minister, Mullah Mohammad Fazil, who would have negotiated any agreement to surrender, "is in Kunduz, with the town's defenders." "The fighters' situation in Kunduz is good and they have good morale," Al-Jazeera quoted a Taliban official as saying.