Friday, May 20 2005 16:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Cautioning against complacency in the hunt for Osama bin Laden by international community, Pakistan has said the al-Qaeda leader was alive and moving around from place-to-place with a small group of people.

Osama "is moving around from place-to-place but not with a large group of people, otherwise he would be detected," Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri told reporters in the port city of Karachi yesterday (May 19, 2005) after his return from a visit to Australia and New Zealand.

Pakistan army has "paralysed" al-Qaeda's communications network and "vastly reduced" its capacity to strike, he claimed while cautioning against complacency in the hunt for the al-Qaeda leader, local daily 'The News' reported today (May 20, 2005).

Pakistani leaders have been saying for several months that bin Laden moved back and forth in Afghan-Pak borders.

On US-Iran differences over the nuclear issue, Kasuri said Pakistan wanted a peaceful solution to the crisis and backed the European Union stand to solve it through talks.

"We have a clear policy on Iran's nuclear issue. Iran is a signatory to the (Nuclear) Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and it has some rights as well as some obligations. Pakistan is in favour of non-proliferation and it fully supports the EU stand on the nuclear issue of Iran," he said.

Kasuri said Pakistan was a responsible nuclear power and it had extended full cooperation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on this issue.

He made it clear that as far as the nuclear programme of Pakistan was concerned, the country was not receiving any threat from any quarters. "We are not weak... No one can pressurise us whether it's the issue of Iran's nuclear programme or Indo-Pak relations.