BERLIN (Reuters) - Afghan Minister for Reconstruction Amin Farhang said late on Thursday he believed deposed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar may have been arrested, but the United States said it had nothing to support the report.

"I have heard that he was arrested but more I do not know," Farhang said, speaking on a late-night ARD TV news programme.

In Washington, the Pentagon said it had nothing to support the contention.

The United States said on Thursday the Taliban era in Afghanistan was finished and stepped up efforts to capture or kill the elusive leaders of the austere Islamic movement.

Afghanistan's new rulers have said they were negotiating the possible surrender of Mullah Omar. Washington holds the reclusive cleric responsible for providing Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network with a safe haven from which to carry out its operations against U.S. and other targets.

Reconstruction Minister Farhang was a member of the Rome delegation backing former Afghan King Zahir Shah at the Bonn peace talks last month that forged the interim government. A former resident of Germany, Farhang gave the interview in German.