Islamabad: Osama bin Laden may be hiding along Pakistan's mountainous border with Afghanistan where Islamic hardliners hold sway, President Pervez Musharraf said on May 1.

In an interview with a London-based television channel, Musharraf insisted Pakistani forces are doing all they can to track down bin Laden. But he said if the al-Qaida chief was part of a small cell, "he can hide anywhere''.

"They may be hiding in our tribal areas, but I cannot say with certainty,'' Musharraf told satellite channel ARY Gold. "Our Army is operating there. We have asked tribesmen to tell us if they know anything. The tribesmen have said they will do it.''

US and Pakistani officials suspect that bin Laden and many of his top lieutenants survived US bombing in Afghanistan and may have found refuge in Pakistan's ultra-conservative tribal belt.

The border areas were a staging post for Islamic militants who defeated Afghanistan's Communist rulers in 1982 and for the later Taleban regime, which gave refuge to al-Qaida until their ouster in late 2001. Islamic hardliners made big gains in the region in elections last October.

"We have arrested most of the al-Qaida people,'' Musharraf said in the interview, which was recorded on May 1 in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. "They were handed over to America because their own governments were not prepared to take them back.''