WASHINGTON, Sept 28: President Asif Ali Zardari has assured the United States that if Pakistan catches Osama bin Laden, it would consider Washington’s request to hand him over to US authorities.

“I will go around with my friends and see what they wanted. If they want them tried in Pakistan we will try them in Pakistan. If they want them tried in New York, sure so be it,” Mr Zardari said.

Also for the first time since 9/11, US-installed Afghan President Hamid Karzai withdrew his claim that the Al Qaeda leader was hiding in Pakistan.

The two leaders, in two separate interviews to CNN, expressed their desire to work with each other to defeat terrorism.

“Osama bin Laden is not in Pakistan,” said Mr Zardari, adding that nobody knew where the Al Qaeda chief was. “If I knew, he wouldn’t be there.”

Mr Zardari said that those who believed the Al Qaeda leader was hiding in Pakistan should share their intelligence with the Pakistani government and assured them that Islamabad would take immediate action.

Mr Karzai, who in the past had claimed that Bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan, told CNN that he was no longer sure if he was in Pakistan.“We used to say he was in Pakistan after we received intelligence reports that he was. Now we cannot say where he is because we don’t know. We have become very careful,” said Mr Karzai.

“He is not in Afghanistan. He never lived in Afghanistan after 9/11,” Mr Karzai added.

The Afghan president was also lenient to the ISI, an agency he previously blamed for all the troubles he was facing in Afghanistan.

Mr Karzai hoped that the Pakistani spy agency would play a “more effective role” for the betterment of its country.

Mr Karzai also had an uncharacteristically positive attitude towards the new Pakistani government, saying that he believed the Zardari government would be more effective against terrorism because he had suffered personal loss.

Others in the government were also attacked, Mr Karzai noted, and the people of Pakistan also had suffered. Because of these developments, he said, he now believed that Pakistan would play a better role in fighting terrorism.

He said that the Afghan government had given former president Pervez Musharraf a list of Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders hiding in Pakistan but he did not take that list seriously.

“If he had listened to us, Pakistan could have avoided the loss it suffered,” Mr Karzai said.

In his interview to CNN’s Late Show, President Zardari assured the allied nations that his government was with them in fighting terrorism.

Mr Zardari did not directly blame Al Qaeda for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s murder but said those who ‘martyred’ his wife could also target him.

Mr Zardari ruled out the possibility of a war between Pakistan and the US. “Friendly fire is a normal thing even among the US soldiers,” said Mr Zardari while talking about an exchange of fire between Pakistani and US troops last week.

The president said there were no rogue elements in his government and urged Washington to step up intelligence cooperation with Islamabad to pursue terrorists who might be hiding on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border.

Mr Zardari, however, warned the US not to conduct unilateral action inside Pakistani territory as such actions would only help terrorists.

“If there is actionable intelligence of that high priority, share with us, we will do the job,” he said.

The president said he had control over all security and intelligence organisations. “Definitely, absolutely,” he said of all government institutions being on the same page in the war against terror.

Commenting on US presidential candidate Barack Obama’s strategy to take out any top Al Qaeda operatives hiding in Fata, Mr Zardari argued that Pakistani forces would do the job better.

He noted that Mr Obama talked about taking unilateral action only if Pakistan was unwilling to do so.

“But in this case, the Pakistani authorities and the president of Pakistan are more than willing,” he added.