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LONDON, March 4 (AFP) - An informant whose tip-off to US intelligence led to the arrest of al-Qaeda operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan is to receive a reward of 17 million pounds (27 million dollars, 25 million euros) the Sun daily reported Tuesday.

The British tabloid said the informant was a Egyptian father-of-four and a suspected Taliban officer who was tracked down by the CIA and arrested in the Pakistani border town of Quetta on February 14.

The man was offered a new identity, and had asked to move with his family to the central English town of Leicester, which has a large Muslim population, because a friend lives nearby, the Sun reported.

A security source told the tabloid: "He was given no choice but to cooperate and wisely decided it would be stupid to turn down a life of guaranteed luxury."

The Sun also reported that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had now put a 500,000 pound price on the informer's head.

Bin Laden had offered a similar reward to the family of a suicide bomber who kills Mohammed, according to the paper.

An unnamed source told the Sun that Mohammed "knows too much and they want him silenced -- fast."

The Sun reported that Mohammed was being interrogated at the British Indian Ocean island military base Diego Garcia.

Mohammed is considered the number three in the al-Qaeda network after bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Mohammed is believed to have been the architect of the September 11 attacks, when four hijacked planes ploughed into New York's World Trade Center, the Defense Department headquarters in Washington and a field in Pennsylvania, killing more than 3,000 people.

The United States praised Pakistan Monday for capturing Mohammed, calling the arrest of such a "big fish" a major blow to al-Qaeda.

The US refused to say where Mohammed was being interrogated or whether he was in American custody. 

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