Pakistan probably let Chinese engineers examine the wreckage of a top-secret US stealth helicopter that crashed during the raid killing Osama bin Laden, according to The New York Times.

Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper on Sunday said US intelligence agencies concluded that it was likely that Chinese engineers – at the invitation of ­Pakistani spies – took detailed photographs of the severed tail of the Black Hawk helicopter equipped with classified technology designed to elude radar.

The Financial Times also carried the report.

Relations between Pakistan and the United States are at their lowest ebb, strained by the covert American raid that killed bin Laden near Pakistan’s main military academy and Pakistan’s earlier detention of a CIA contractor.

President Barack Obama’s Administration recently suspended about one-third of its $2.7 billion annual defence aid to Pakistan, but assured Islamabad it was committed to a $7.5 billion civilian assistance package approved in 2009.

US Navy Seals reportedly tried to destroy the helicopter after it crashed at bin Laden’s compound on May 2, but the tail section of the aircraft remained largely intact.

A senior Pakistani security official denied the report and pointed out that the wreckage had been handed back to US officials shortly after the raid.