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ISLAMABAD, Nov 15 (AFP) - Pakistan has ordered a special watch on its border with Afghanistan in case terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden tries to slip across, officials said Thursday.

With pressure mounting on the Taliban headquarters in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, next to the Pakistan border, a top Pakistan government official said troops were on a special "Osama" alert.

"The government is aware of all possibilities and is taking all possibilities into account," the official, who requested anonymity, told AFP.

"Civil armed forces on the western borders in North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan borders have been put on red alert against any threat" of bin Laden getting into Pakistan.

"We have also redeployed forces to cover unfrequented routes. We have taken all measures that are necessary to ward off such a threat," he added.

Taliban spokesmen have regularly insisted that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, and his ally bin Laden, the Saudi dissident accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, are alive and still in Afghanistan.

The fate of Kandahar, where Omar's residence has been destroyed in US bombing strikes that started on October 7, remains unclear however.

Northern Alliance and independent local commanders are taking over Taliban territory closer and closer to the city.

A Northern Alliance envoy in Tajikistan said the Taliban had fled its spiritual headquarters. US defence department officials have said only that Pashtun tribes had risen up against the Taliban around Kandahar.

But western defence officials and analysts say the Taliban now seem to be preparing for a guerrilla war from Afghanistan's rugged and remote mountains.

And despite the government's alert, bin Laden could easily get across the border into Pakistan, especially in mountainous zones controlled by semi-autonomous tribes, experts said.

Bin Laden was last seen on November 8. That was when Pakistani newspaper journalist Hamid Mir said he interviewed the 44-year-old multi-millionaire creator of the al-Qaeda network.

British defence sources said Wednesday that bin Laden remains elusive despite the sweeping victories for Afghanistan's opposition forces.

They said that while intelligence had been received "from the ground" about bin Laden's movements, it had always come too late to be "actionable" by US forces or their allies.

US intelligence officials quoted by New York Times this week said "bin Laden and his lieutenants have been changing locations frequently in the last few weeks and he appears to be travelling independently of Mullah Omar and the Taliban leader's inner circle."

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted Wednesday however that the search remained a daunting challenge.

"Our task is to find the al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership. It continues to be a difficult task; finding handfuls of people is like finding needles in a haystack," Rumsfeld said.

Without naming nations, Rumsfeld warned countries against harbouring terrorist suspects such as bin Laden, who has been able to find sanctuary in places like Somalia and Sudan in the past.

Bin Laden has been the United States' most wanted man since August 1998 when bombs at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed more than 200 people.

Two months later, President Bill Clinton ordered missile attacks on a suspected terrorist camp where bin Laden was expected to attend a meeting. US officials later said bin Laden was missed by one hour. 

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