Karachi: Osama bin Laden is not in Pakistan and his al-Qaida movement in the country has been broken, a Presidential spokesman said on September 22.

"Osama bin Laden cannot be in Pakistan," spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi told reporters in Karachi.

"It is safer for anybody connected with al-Qaida to remain in Afghanistan than to remain in Pakistan."

"Even in present circumstances, a chaotic Afghanistan is a better place for him (bin Laden) and his companions," he said.

Qureshi said Pakistan had handed over a total of 422 al-Qaida suspects to the United States and rejected suggestions the network may be regrouping in Pakistan.

"Their backbone has been broken and they are on run," he said.

"We arrested 380 al-Qaida extremists from tribal areas, 35 from Faisalabad and Lahore and about seven from Karachi and all of them have been handed over to the US authorities," Qureshi said.

"In Lahore and Faisalabad the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and our intelligence agencies shared information."

"But in Karachi the entire operation against Ramzi bin al-Shaiba, his comrades and other militants was our own."