Bin Laden reports 'baseless'

Claims that Osama bin Laden had been captured have been rejected by US and Pakistan officials.

Pakistan's Interior Minister said reports that the al Qaeda chief had been arrested in the country were unfounded and baseless.

Other senior government officials also denied the report of bin Laden's arrest, which was carried on Iranian radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This is absolutely unfounded and absolutely baseless," Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said.

Home Secretary David Blunkett also dismissed reports that the terrorist mastermind had been captured.

Iranian Radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation, reported bin Laden was being held by Pakistani Inter-Intelligence

Services and that US troops were present.

Bin Laden is held responsible by the United States for being behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, in which nearly 3,000 people died.

On March 1, Pakistani authorities arrested Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of al Qaeda's top members and another Sept. 11 mastermind, in a raid on the northern city of Rawalpindi.

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