US senators say bin Laden is 'probably' in Pakistan

US senators are starting to believe that Osama bin Laden is now in Pakistan.

Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee say Uzbekistan's military intelligence service believes bin Laden has crossed the border.

Intelligence Committee Chairman Senator Bob Graham says bin Laden has "probably" escaped Pakistan, but no one is certain.

Democratic Senator John Edwards, who is traveling with other senators in the region, said: "I fully expect the Pakistanis will do everything they can to help us locate bin Laden."

Senator Graham said: "Increasingly as our efforts to get them in Afghanistan have been futile, there is a greater sense that they have, in fact, escaped, and are probably in one of those tribal territories just over the border into Pakistan."

Top military officials have said they don't know where bin Laden and Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar are.

Bin Laden was thought to be in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, but he has not turned up in searches by US and anti-Taliban forces there.

Omar was most recently thought to be near Baghran, northwest of Kandahar, but Afghan officials now say they believe he escaped.