KUWAIT CITY, ISLAMABAD, (Islamweb & News Agencies) - U.S. officials have been sharing evidence against Osama bin Laden with Gulf Arab states and with Pakistan to boost regional support in hunting down the world's most wanted man, diplomats said Wednesday.``They have some good proof,'' said one official who was briefed but refused to disclose details or be identified.
A diplomat said the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia had shown such evidence to the Saudi government ``in the last couple of days.'' Diplomats said meetings had also been arranged in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, among other states.
Official sources said some Gulf states had their own information allegedly linking bin Laden's al Qaeda network to the September 11 attacks in the United States and other attacks.
Security sources said FBI agents visiting the Gulf would inspect intelligence collected by Gulf Arab governments on Saudi-born bin Laden and al Qaeda.
Washington has named the Afghanistan-based militant as its prime suspect behind the suicide hijack attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
In Islamabad, Pakistan said Wednesday it was studying evidence provided by the United States that seeks to link Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden ) with last month's devastating attacks. Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan told a news briefing that the information was ``being studied by the concerned people'' and he was not in a position to say more.
Pakistan previously said the United States had only informed it about the status of investigations into the suicide plane attacks that left nearly 6,000 people dead or presumed killed.
Pakistan has pledged to cooperate with the United States in its war on terrorism, but has asked for evidence implicating bin Laden before any retaliatory strikes are launched.
Khan said Pakistan was not stalling over giving its opinion on whether it thought bin Laden was involved in the attacks.
Pakistan, the only country to maintain diplomatic relations with the Taliban, has promised to share intelligence, allow the use of its airspace and provide logistical support for any military operation to flush out bin Laden and his followers from neighboring Afghanistan.
But Islamabad says it will not send troops into Afghanistan, where the Taliban are now almost totally isolated because of their refusal to bow to U.S. demands to hand over bin Laden.