WASHINGTON, July 17: The White House refused on Tuesday to confirm reports that Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt, and said it did not even know if he was dead or alive.

Quoting intelligence sources, German newspapers had reported last week that the head of the Al Qaeda network was hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

But the presidential spokesman, Ari Fleischer, told a news briefing at the White House that the United States had no conclusive information about bin Laden’s whereabouts. “We do not know whether bin Laden is dead or alive,” he added.

“I think you’re going to continue to see numerous reports from all different places around the world, because nobody seems to know.”

Fleischer, however, warned that bin Laden being dead or alive did not change President George Bush’s “fundamental mission” about this war, “which is the continued protection of the American people.”

He said there were “still people who are doing their best to infiltrate our borders, to enter America, to bring harm to the American citizenry in any way that they possibly can.”

Earlier Tuesday, Bush announced his strategy for homeland security at Congress, calling the protection of America “our most urgent national priority.”

The strategy focuses on the creation of a new cabinet-level department to fight terrorism inside the United States and to monitor terrorist threats from abroad.

Bush announced several key initiatives, such as securing international shipping containers, augmenting vaccine stockpiles, enhancing the FBI’s analytical capabilities, improving cooperation among different levels of federal, state and local governments and upgrading computer security.

Replying to a question about the recent attack on a Hindu temple in Jammu in which 27 people were killed, Fleischer said that President Bush “continues to be deeply concerned about the violence in Kashmir.”

The president, he said, has been “working very hard with quite a bit of success, along with other members of his administration and the international community, to reduce the amount of tension between India and Pakistan over this disputed area.”

“It continues to be an area of great concern and volatility. And it remains an area of active American diplomatic engagement.”