FIGHTERS of the Northern Alliance were last night at the gates of the Afghan capital Kabul following the dramatic collapse of resistance by the ruling Taliban across large swathes of the country.

Taliban troops were reportedly in flight after days of bombing by United States warplanes of their frontline positions, leaving the city at the mercy of the alliance forces.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said he expected alliance commanders to honour their commitment not to take Kabul as the international community thrashes out a new political settlement for the country.

However, it was unclear whether commanders on the ground would be able to restrain troops fired up by their victories and carried forward by the momentum of their advance.

Britain and the US do not want to see the city fall to the alliance before agreement is reached on a new broad-based government to replace the Taliban.

Later, Mr Blair told the Lord Mayor's banquet in London that the Taliban was "unravelling", but the war against terror was far from over.

"The war against terrorism is not just a police action to root out the networks and those who protect them, although it is certainly that," he said.

"It needs to be a series of political actions designed to remove the conditions under which such acts of evil can flourish."

Last night,with Taliban forces in retreat across northern Afghanistan, almost half the country was said to be in alliance hands.

At one stage, alliance commanders on the Kabul front advanced nine miles in only one hour before they were finally halted by Taliban resistance.

Truckloads of alliance fighters were reported to be shouting "God is great" as they headed along the road south to Kabul to shore up their newly-won positions against counter-attack.

Senior alliance spokes-man Bismillah Khan said they had advanced to Mir Bacha Kot, about 12 miles north of the city, and were awaiting further orders.

"We are at the gate of Kabul," he declared.

However the alliance, which is predominantly made up of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks, has yet to make any inroads into the Taliban's Pashtun heartlands in the south of the country, where Osama bin Laden may well be hiding.

The sudden collapse of the Taliban in the north was triggered by the fall on Friday of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.