WASHINGTON, April 23: Osama bin Laden is alive and being harboured in the slums of Peshawar, a newspaper report said on Tuesday.

The Washington Times - quoting a tribal chief - reported Osama had been sheltered by supporters in the city of 3.5 million people since escaping Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountains in early December.

The Times described the chieftain as a “reliable source on several occasions”.

The daily said Taliban leaders have kept houses in Peshawar and in Quetta since they seized power in Afghanistan in 1994.

Osama is safe, said the tribal leader. He told the Washington Times Osama had escaped from Tora Bora with about 50 fighters through the Tirah Valley on Dec 9.

The tribal leader said he was “reasonably confident” that Osama was being protected by “certain rogue elements of Pakistan’s intelligence world” that have taken exception to President Pervez Musharraf’s alliance with the United States.

Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters now in Pakistan are said to have been instructed to re-enter Afghanistan “to kill Americans and other foreign troops”, the tribal chief said.

A 25 million dollar reward for information leading to Osama’s capture has garnered a number of tips as to the location of the exiled Saudi.—dpa