Islamabad: An aggressive search for Osama bin Laden was on in North Western Pakistani districts bordering Afghanistan with President Pervez Musharraf on March 7 saying that the terrorist mastermind is likely to be hiding in "a more remote area" with a contingent of bodyguards.

Since the recent arrest in Rawalpindi of top al-Qaida operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is believed to have met bin Laden weeks before his capture, the search for the al-Qaida leader has been narrowed to a few Pakistani provinces in the North West including Waziristan area, and tribal and frontier regions North of it, US and Pakistani officials said.

Intelligence and law enforcement officials are following up on numerous leads from the materials seized when Sheikh Mohammed was captured.

A senior American official said Mohammed has begun giving his interrogators "information that is of some use".

In an interview to CNN, Musharraf, who had earlier maintained that the terrorist mastermind was dead, raised the possibility of his being alive but said that the al- Qaida leader might not be in the cities.

He said unlike Sheikh Mohammed, bin Laden is likely in a more remote area along with a contingent of bodyguards.

PTI