WASHINGTON, Dec 5: Pakistan troops were not withdrawing from the south Waziristan border region, which is considered a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden, President Pervez Musharraf told the Washington Post in an interview published on Sunday.

Gen Musharraf said Pakistani forces were still aggressively pursuing Osama but that recent security operations and interrogation had determined only that he was still alive.

"He is alive, but more than that, where he is, no, it'll be just a guess and it won't have much basis," President Gen Musharraf was quoted as saying in the interview. Pressed about whether bin Laden's trail had gone cold, Gen Musharraf told the Post: "Yes, if you mean we don't know, from that point of view, we don't know where he is."

He said the US-led coalition did not have enough troops in Afghanistan, which had left "voids". He said the United States and its allies needed to speed the training and expansion of the new Afghan army.

Gen Musharraf met on Saturday with US President George Bush, who praised his ally's efforts in the war on terrorism and the search for bin Laden. -Reuters