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KARACHI, Monday (AFP) The al-Qaeda terror outfit of Osama bin Laden is "down but not out" in Pakistan, and may be regrouping here despite several recent arrests that are part of a crackdown on extremism, a senior police officer has warned.

Fayyaz Leghari, the chief of Karachi's police investigation department, acknowledged that al-Qaeda members were hiding throughout the Islamic republic.

"They are on the run and may be using Pakistan as transit," Leghari told AFP late on Sunday.

"They may take time regrouping. They are certainly down, but not out."

Recent police successes against al-Qaeda-linked extremists, including the death this past week of a key operative, have proven to be a "major set-back for the militants", Leghari said.

"I believe they feel they are not safe here," he added.

Karachi was the site Thursday of a major explosion which demolished a suspected militants' explosives warehouse and killed Pakistan's most-wanted man, the extremist Asif Ramzi.

Ramzi, who has been linked by police to al-Qaeda, was wanted for involvement in the murder early this year of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, as well as the June suicide bombing outside the US embassy here which killed 12 Pakistanis.

Leghari termed Ramzi's death a "sigh of relief" for police.

"There are very few terrorists of his magnitude.

"He had a role in several high-profile attacks and bomb blasts including the killing of Daniel Pearl and possibly the Sheraton blast," he said. Eleven French naval engineers and three Pakistanis were killed in the May blast outside the Sheraton Hotel.

On Saturday police announced the arrest of four militants of a banned extremist group and said one of them confessed to plotting with Arab and local al-Qaeda extremists to launch attacks against US forces in Pakistan.

And on Thursday nine men were detained in a raid by Pakistani police and US forces on a suspected al-Qaeda hideout in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief said on CNN that Osama bin Laden is alive and still orchestrating the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

"I believe he's alive. I believe he is in Afghanistan ... near the border with Pakistan," said Prince Turki al-Faisal, adding that he believed bin Laden was in touch with al-Qaeda operatives through "satellite phones" and "couriers."

Last month the United States came to the same conclusion after analyzing a voice message now believed to have come from bin Laden. US and allied forces have been scouring Afghanistan for more than a year, in search for the man behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Prince Turki said said that bin Laden's old ally, Mullah Omar -- the former head of the Taliban -- was also probably still alive and residing in Afghanistan.

"I don't know if he's operating, but he's still alive," said Prince Turki, who headed up the Saudi intelligence agency for more than 24 years.

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