WASHINGTON, Oct 16: The US State Department has no knowledge that Taliban Foreign Minister Abdul Wakil Muttwakil has visited Islamabad for talks or that he has conveyed an offer to make efforts to have Osama bin Laden handed over if America initiated a bombing pause of two or three days.

A senior State Department official said on Tuesday that there was no indication that Mr Muttawakil had even visited Islamabad. To travel out of Afghanistan, the minister would have needed permission from the UN sanctions committee.

The US had also not heard anything from Pakistani officials about Mr Muttawakil or his reported offer. The senior official was commenting on a long report in The New York Times on Tuesday that the Taliban foreign minister had held secret talks in Pakistan on Monday.