Washington: As the hunt for Osama bin Laden expanded to include the rugged Northern region near Peshawar, US officials are "concerned" that Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is leaking information to the al-Qaida terror network about pending raids on its suspected hideouts, media reported on March 14.

Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and its ranking Democrat Senator Joseph Biden, expressed concerns about ISI's renewed help to Taleban and al-Qaida activists seeking to infiltrate Afghanistan to destabilise the regime of President Hamid Karzai, 'The Washington Times' reported.

The two Senators added that they believed the ISI was carrying on this activity without the knowledge of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

US intelligence officials have long tied Pakistan's intelligence agency Inter- Service Intelligence to al-Qaida and the Taleban, it added.

The hunt for Osama was focused over the past two weeks on the isolated mountains of South Western Pakistan.

PTI