France and the United States said yesterday they could not confirm a report that Osama Bin Laden had died and France launched a probe into how a secret document containing the claim was leaked.
The French regional daily L'Est Republicain, published in Nancy, quoted a document from France's DGSE foreign intelligence service as saying the Saudi secret services were convinced the Al Qaeda leader had died of typhoid in Pakistan in late August.
President Jacques Chirac told reporters Bin Laden's death "has not been confirmed in any way whatsoever, and so I have no comment to make". "I was a bit surprised to see that a confidential note from the DGSE had been published," he said after a summit with leaders of Germany and Russia.
The Saudi Interior Ministry was not available for comment and officials in the United States, which has made capturing bin Laden a priority in its war on terrorism, were also unable to confirm the account.
"We don't have any confirmation of that report," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"We've heard these things before and have no reason to think this is any different," added a US intelligence official, who asked not to be named.
In Paris, Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie ordered an investigation into the leaking of the classified DGSE document.
The French newspaper printed what it said was a copy of the report, dated last Thursday, and said it had been passed to Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin the same day. "According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi services are now convinced that Osama Bin Laden is dead," it read.
"The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of Al Qaeda fell victim, while he was in Pakistan on August 23, to a very ser-ious case of typhoid that led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs."
The report, which was stamped "defence confidential" and with the initials of the French secret service, said Saudi Arabia had first heard the information on September 4 and was waiting for more details before making an official announcement.
"Even if Saudi Arabia had information, they'd pass it on to the United States, not France. It doesn't ring true." A senior Pakistani government official said Islamabad had not received any information from any foreign government that would corroborate the story.
The Saudi-born bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until the Taliban government there was overthrown by US-backed forces after Al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Since then, US and Pakistani officials have regularly said they believe he is hiding somewhere on the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bin Laden is rumoured to have been suffering from kidney ailments and receiving dialysis treatment. His last videotaped message was released in late 2004, but several low-quality audio tapes have been released this year.
Senior US intelligence figures have cautioned against assuming that Bin Laden's death or capture would automatically have a substantial impact in the war on terrorism.