THE US Senate has overnight unanimously approved an additional $US200 million to this year's defence budget to fund an intelligence unit that would seek to hunt down top Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden. The measure, approved by a vote of 96 to 0, would also require the US Defence Department to report to Congress every three months about progress made toward apprehending bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.The legislation was authored by Democrats Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan as an amendment to the 2007 Defence Appropriations Bill being debated in the Senate this week. "Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, planned, financed and organised a terrorist operation that killed thousands of Americans. It has now been more than 1800 days since those attacks, and this man is still on the loose," said Mr Conrad. "The Senate agrees that it is chief among our priorities in the war on terror to bring the mastermind behind September 11 to the justice that a mass murderer deserves. Our amendment makes certain that bringing Osama bin Laden to justice will be one of our country's most important priorities, and that he is pursued with real energy and with focus, clarity and a specific set of goals."
Republican Senator Ted Stevens, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee which manages federal spending, on Thursday called the amendment