Pakistan given no info to back report bin Laden dead

ISLAMABAD, Sep 23 (Reuters) Pakistan has received no information from any foreign government that would corroborate a French newspaper report today that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan, a senior government official said.

''No government has shared any such information with us so far, which is the normal thing to do under such circumstances,'' the official, who has close knowledge of intelligence matters, told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

A senior official in Pakistan's Interior Ministry also said: ''We have no information about Osama's death.'' The daily L'Est Republicain reported that, according to a French secret service report, Saudi Arabia was convinced that bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan in late August.

High-ranking diplomats in the Pakistani capital also doubted the French regional newspaper's report.

The French government has said it could not confirm the report and would investigate the intelligence leak.

The al Qaeda leader fled to Pakistan after US-backed forces drove his Taliban hosts from power in late 2001, following al Qaeda's September 11 attacks on Washington and New York, but his pursuers soon lost track of him.

While US and Pakistan officials have regularly said since that they believe bin Laden has been hiding somewhere on the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, intelligence officials have also said that the trail went cold some time ago.

There have been no intelligence ''hits'' on bin Laden, either through tip-offs or electronic surveillance, for at least two years, Pakistan security officials said earlier this month.

The last videotaped message released by bin Laden was in late 2004, but several low-quality audio tapes were issued earlier this year.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf held a joint news conference with President George Bush in Washington yesterday in which the two leaders said their countries were continuing to cooperate closely in the hunt for bin Laden.

The two men also sought to paper over a disagreement prompted by President Bush's statement to CNN on Wednesday that he would order troops into Pakistan if he had firm intelligence on bin Laden.

President Musharraf, facing anti-US sentiment at home, had said Pakistan would want to handle such a situation itself.

A senior Taliban official, whose fighters are allied to the remnants of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, also poured cold water on the French newspaper story.

''Taliban have no information about the death of Osama. It's only baseless propaganda against mujahideen (Muslim holy warriors),'' Mullah Obaidullah told Reuters by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.

REUTERS SHB KN1636