Islamabad - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden remained unknown and there were unconfirmed reports from local intelligence agencies that he might be dead.

"The Americans tell me they don't know, and they are much more equipped than us to trace him. And our own intelligence services obviously think that he does not exist any more, that he is dead," Zardari told a group of foreign journalists.

But the president acknowledged that Pakistani intelligence did not have evidence on bin Laden's death.

Zardari was responding to reports saying Pakistani Taliban would welcome Bin Laden in Swat, the restive north-western district where the militants have consolidated their control since last month's peace accord with the government.

"The question is whether he is alive or dead. There is no trace of him," he said.

Bin Laden, who is at large since the US invasion of Afghanistan following September 2001 attacks on United States, is believed to be suffering from ill health.

Media reports have suggested that Bin laden had died of natural causes, but Al Jazeera television recently aired an audio recording that was purported to be his voice. (dpa)