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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — In what appears to be the first exchange with a journalist since going into hiding five years ago, the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, said that he had not seen al-Qaida's chief, Osama bin Laden, in five years and that he would never negotiate with the U.S.-backed government of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.

He also threatened to continue the war until foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

The statements were made in written response to questions sent by e-mail messages to the Taliban spokesman, Muhammad Hanif, who often speaks to journalists by telephone from an undisclosed location. Hanif said that Mullah Omar had written the replies himself and that a courier had returned the answers on a USB computer drive.

Though it was impossible to verify those claims, if authentic, the statements would be Omar's first exchange with a journalist since he was driven from power in 2001 by the American-led invasion of Afghanistan. The fugitive Taliban leader, who claims to be at large in Afghanistan, is widely thought to have taken up sanctuary in Pakistan.

Since fleeing his last stronghold in the southern city of Kandahar in December 2001, Omar said, he had not seen or tried to contact bin Laden, and that, although his movement did not have a specific alliance with al-Qaida, they were fighting for the same goals.

He denied receiving any outside assistance, and dismissed as Western propaganda that Pakistan was providing assistance and a safe haven to his movement.