WASHINGTON, Jan 15: US intelligence officers believe Osama bin Laden has escaped American efforts to find him in Afghanistan and that he has most likely fled the entire region by sea, US television station ABC said on Tuesday.

That conclusion has been drawn on the basis of an intelligence analysis sent to CIA Director George Tenet last week, ABC said. To fool US forces in the area, Osama left behind a tape-recorded message that was transmitted only after he was long gone.

In a major setback to the US, CIA officials now believe that Osama escaped from the Tora Bora cave complex into Pakistan around the first week of last month, intelligence officials told ABC.

The officials also told ABC that one captured Al Qaeda fighter claims to have witnessed, in one of the Tora Bora hiding places, Osama turning over operational control to one of his deputies.

US, German, British and French forces have been searching dozens of ships in the Arabian Sea for the last two months and last week’s CIA report concludes that Osama most likely fled by sea from Pakistan.—dpa