No report on Osama's death: Musharraf

He was indirectly quoted as saying that the Al-Qaeda chief was hiding in eastern Afghanistan.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he had no reports about Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's death, thus dismissing a French intelligence information that the terror mastermind had succumbed to typhoid.

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"It's not a hunch," he told The Times newspaper from New York in an interview published on Thursday.

"I don't know" about bin Laden having died, he said.

"Unless I am sure I never say anything," Musharraf said observing: "If they (the French) have some source they should tell us. At least our intelligence does not know anything."

The newspaper, without directly quoting the Pakistan President, said he believed bin Laden was hiding in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar.

"Kunar province borders on Bajaur Agency. We know there are some pockets of Al-Qaeda in Bajaur Agency. We have set a good intelligence organisation," he told The Times.

The Pakistani leader also suggested links between bin Laden and Afghan warlord and former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, saying: "In Kunar province it is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who is operating."