Pakistan rejects 'Bin Laden raid'
A senior US official has said he believed the architect of the 2001 suicide attacks on New York and Washington was in northern Pakistan.
Pakistani FM Khurshid Kasuri said Bin Laden was not in the country.
A recent US intelligence report says al-Qaeda is intensifying efforts to put operatives into the US.
The report says the nation is at a heightened risk of attack.
Analysts warn that al-Qaeda's leaders have found a "safe haven" in Pakistani tribal areas which has allowed them to regroup.
All options available
US director of national intelligence Mike McConnell said recently he believed Bin Laden was in northern Pakistan, near the Afghan border.
President Bush's homeland security adviser Frances Townsend said that in the pursuit of Bin Laden, no options were off the table.
Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri said he did not believe that the al-Qaeda leader was in Pakistan - and in any case, if the US shared its intelligence, Pakistan's army could do a better job.
Pakistan Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said: "Our stance is that Osama Bin Laden is not present in Pakistan.
"If anyone has the information he should give it to us, so that we can apprehend him," he was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
President Pervez Musharraf last week vowed to root out extremists "from every corner of the country".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6911231.stm
Published: 2007/07/23 05:05:58 GMT
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