WASHINGTON, Sept 23: US intelligence officials said on Saturday they could not confirm the report suggesting that top Al Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden might be dead.

“I wouldn’t hold your breath,” said a senior White house official when asked to comment on the report.

“We don’t have anything for you,” said a State Department official when asked for further comments.

Several US television channels also quoted officials in Islamabad as saying that they had no information that confirms Osama’s death. In an interview to Washington Times, NWFP Governor Ali Mohammed Jan Aurakzai said that his officials had no information about Osama’s whereabouts but would not hesitate to catch him if they knew.

In Paris, where the report about Osama’s death originated, French President Jacques Chirac said he would investigate the leak of confidential French defense ministry documents containing a report that said that Osama bin Laden “is dead”, and said that the report has been in no way confirmed.

“I was rather surprised to see that a confidential note from the DGSE (General Directorate for External Security) was published and I have asked the minister of Defense to start an investigation immediately and to reach whatever conclusions are necessary,” Chirac said.

“Secondly, speaking of the source of the information itself, this information is in no way confirmed.”

The leaked information was first published in a French regional newspaper Saturday. The article said that a French foreign intelligence document dated Sept 21 quoted a “usually reliable source” as saying that Saudi Arabian authorities were trying to confirm reports that Osama died of an acute case of typhoid in Pakistan on Aug 23.

The report in L’Est Republicain said the Saudi secret service first got the reports of Osama’s death on September 4 and were trying to get more details, in particular about the exact location in which the death apparently took place.

An official with the French defense ministry confirmed that an investigation into the leaked documents was already under way.

Rashid Husain adds from Riyadh: Saudi Arabia is convinced that Osama died of typhoid in Pakistan on or around Aug 23. However, before announcing it officially, they are trying to ascertain more details and particularly, the exact location of his burial.

Osama Osama died within days of contracting typhoid fever in Pakistan last month, according to unnamed Saudi police sources quoted in the French daily. “According to a commonly reliable source, the Saudi police believe that Osama Osama has died,” said a Sept. 21 confidential note transmitted by the Directorate-General of (the French) External Services.

“According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi services are now convinced that Osama Osama is dead,” the document said.

“The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al Qaeda was a victim while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, of a very serious case of typhoid which led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs.”