WASHINGTON, Sept 7: Pakistan will continue to hunt for Osama bin Laden and will not allow him to benefit from an amnesty offered to tribal militants, hopes the White House.

“It’s simply not true that somehow bin Laden or members of Al-Qaeda would get a free pass if they keep their noses clean,” White House press secretary Tony Snow told a Wednesday afternoon briefing.

Earlier on Wednesday, ABC News report cited Pakistan’s top military spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan as saying bin Laden would not be taken into custody if he agreed to live peacefully in Pakistan. Bin Laden is thought to be hiding somewhere along the rugged Pakistan-Afghan border region.

Mr Snow said Pakistan had clarified that ‘the cease-fire is … not going to diminish efforts to apprehend Osama bin Laden or bring him to justice.”

He said the Musharraf government ‘has been very cooperative in helping track down members of Al Qaeda’ and that under the terms of the ceasefire, ‘local tribal Taliban … have agreed not to shelter foreigners … and … not to allow cross-border incursions into Afghanistan or to attack the military.”

The Bush administration did not believe reports that the ceasefire agreement ‘throws open the border area to Al Qaeda,” Mr Snow said, adding such a scenario ‘does not make sense for the government of Pakistan.’

He said the Bush administration wanted to assist the Pakistani government in securing North Waziristan and in going after Al Qaeda, and the administration believed the cease-fire ‘is consistent with those efforts.’

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said it was ‘not necessary’ for the US to ‘offer a seal of approval’ for every agreement.

“This is a sovereign decision for them to take and they think that this is the best approach to reach the objective that all of us share,” he told a briefing in Washington.

The spokesman said that the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan were all interested that the area was rid of terrorist elements.

“We all know from experience and looking around the world that one of the best ways to deal with ungoverned areas comes out from a number of different angles — military, economic and political angles — so that you do build up institutions that are reliable for the central government,” he said.

Mr McCormack welcomed President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Afghanistan as ‘very positive’ and said Pakistan and Afghanistan had a shared interest that the tribal border was not a safe haven for terrorists.