PTI

Washington, May 11: The world's most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden is "not alive," Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said while candidly describing the elusive terror mastermind as a US "operator" who threatened to destabilise Benazir Bhutto government in 1989.

"I've said before that he (Osama) -- I don't think he's alive," Zardari told NBC news channel in an interview when asked "where is Osama bin Laden?"

"I have a strong feeling and I have sole reason to believe that, because I've asked my counterparts in the American intelligence agencies and they haven't heard (from) him since seven years," he said.

Asked whether Pakistan was "not actively" hunting for Osama, Zardari said that the world was looking for the fugitive al-Qaida leader.

"I think the world is looking for him, and we are part of the world's lookout brigade," he said.

The last audiotape purported to be from Bin Laden surfaced in March but CIA has not confirmed that the voice belonged to him. US officials have claimed that bin Laden could be hiding in the mountainous region along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.