al-Qaeda, Taliban leaders are in Pakistan

The comments by Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal came a day after Pakistan's interior minister was quoted as saying that Osama bin Laden and other key militants may be in southern Afghanistan.

"We believe that the senior Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders are still hiding in the tribal belt of Pakistan's federally controlled tribal area," Mashal told AFP.

US and Afghan officials have long said they think bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda kingpins have been hiding out in the mountains on the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan since the Taliban were toppled in late 2001.