New York: The United States administration has prepared a list of terrorist leaders the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is authorised to kill, if capture is impractical and civilian casualties can be minimised, senior military and intelligence officials were quoted as saying on December 15.

The previously undisclosed CIA list includes key al-Qaida leaders like Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as other principal figures from al-Qaida and affiliated terrorist groups, said the 'New York Times'.

President George W Bush has provided written legal authority to the CIA to hunt down and kill the terrorists without seeking further approval each time the agency is about to stage an operation.

The names of about two dozen terrorist leaders have recently been on the lethal force list, officials said. "It's the worst of the worst."

Some officials said the terrorist list was known as the "high-value target list".

However, spokespersons for the White House and the CIA declined to discuss the list or issues involving the use of lethal force against terrorists, the paper said.

Despite the authority given to the agency, Bush has not waived the executive order banning assassinations, officials were quoted as saying. The residential authority to kill terrorists defines operatives of al-Qaida as enemy combatants and thus legitimate targets for lethal force.

Bush, the paper said, issued a Presidential finding in 2001, after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, providing the basic executive and legal authority for the CIA to either kill or capture terrorist leaders.

Initially, the agency used that authority to hunt for al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan, which also forms the basis for CIA's attempts to find and kill or capture bin laden and other al-Qaida leaders during the war in Afghanistan.

The creation of the secret list, the 'Times' said, is part of the expanded CIA effort to hunt and kill or capture al-Qaida operatives far from traditional battlefields, in countries like Yemen.

The President is not legally required to approve each name added to the list, nor is the CIA required to obtain Presidential approval for specific attacks, although officials said Bush had been kept well informed about the agency's operations.

In November, the CIA killed a Qaida leader in a remote region of Yemen. A pilotless predator aircraft operated by the agency fired a hellfire anti-tank missile at a car in which Qaid Salim Sinan al-Harethi, also known as Abu Ali, was riding. Harethi and five other people, including one suspected Qaida operative with US citizenship, were killed in the attack.

Intelligence officials told the 'Times' that the Presidential finding authorising the agency to kill terrorists was not limited to those on the list. The President has given broad authority to the CIA to kill or capture operatives of al-Qaida around the world. But officials said the group's most senior leaders on the list were the agency's primary focus.

The list is updated periodically as the intelligence agency, in consultation with other counter-terrorism agencies.

PTI