Bin Laden 'hiding out in Pakistan'

Osama bin Laden is believed to be with "friends" of a Pakistani religious party leader, says an official in Afghanistan's interim government.

Mohammad Abeel says bin Laden is thought to be with associates of Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman in a border area of Pakistan.

The spokesman for the Defence Ministry did not elaborate or divulge the source of his information.

Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman is the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a powerful Pakistani religious party sympathetic to Afghanistan's deposed Taliban militia.

Its main support base is parts of Pakistan's North West Frontier and Baluchistan provinces, both of which border Afghanistan.

The party helped orchestrate some of the largest pro-Taliban protests in Pakistan after US air strikes began in Afghanistan in October.

Riaz Durrani, central information secretary for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, has rejected the report about bin Laden as "baseless."

"We support the Taliban, but never had any connection with Osama bin Laden," he said. "Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman is under detention for the last three months. How can he or his party do this?"

He added: "It is part of an international conspiracy to attack Pakistan under the pretext of action against religious organisations."