Bin Laden cornered in Pakistan's northwest

Quoting "a US intelligence source," it said bin Laden and "up to 50 fanatical henchmen" were inside an area 16km wide and deep "north of the town of Khanozai and the city of Quetta".

"He is boxed in," the unidentified source was quoted by the tabloid as saying, adding that US special forces were "absolutely confident" that he could not escape.

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According to the source, bin Laden moved into the area, "in the desolate Toba Kakar mountains," about one month ago from another area 240km to the south, the Sunday Express said.

In Washington, a Defense Department spokesman declined to comment on the report.

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is believed to be with bin Laden, according to the report.

The area is under surveillance from a geostationary spy satellite while US and British special forces await orders to move in, the newspaper said in its early edition, received late Saturday.

Al-Qaeda is held responsible for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001. More recently, it has been suspected of supporting insurgent attacks on US forces in Iraq.

On Thursday, General Richard Meyers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said US forces were engaged in "intense" efforts to capture bin Laden, but held back from saying where he might be hiding.