Police close in on kidnappers of reporter

Police say they are closing in on the kidnappers of US reporter Daniel Pearl.

Investigators say it's a matter of days before they are found.

Mukhtar Ahmed Sheikh, in charge of police in Sindh province, Pakistan, has refused to say who is behind the kidnapping.

Pearl, 38, was last seen on January 23 on his way to meet a Muslim fundamentalist contact at a Karachi restaurant.

However, another senior government official, said the United States believes the mastermind was Sheik Omar Saeed, one of three men freed by India in 1999 to end a hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

"The fact is we know who has done it and we are very close to resolving the case," Sheikh, the provincial official, said.

"But there are questions which, if I answer, could affect the case." he added. "But it is enough to say that we might conclude the whole thing very soon, sooner than you think."

Sheikh said he believed Pearl was still alive but added "there are so many things I cannot talk about."