KABUL - Islamic clerics urged terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden on Thursday to leave Afghanistan voluntarily, the Taliban news agency said.

"The Ulema wants the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan to encourage Osama to leave Afghanistan, but of his own free will," the Bakhtar news agency said, referring to the council of hundreds of clerics which has been meeting for two days.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, who called the meeting of the clerics, are likely to follow its direction, but it was uncertain whether bin Laden, the key suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, would be prepared to leave Afghanistan, where he has had sanctuary since 1996.