"Safest" hideout for bin Laden is Pakistan-Afghan border: Musharraf

WASHINGTON, Monday (AFP) The "safest place" for Osama bin Laden to seek sanctuary is the rugged Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview with Time magazine.

Musharraf said Pakistani authorities a year ago "had some identification of a rough area where he was, through technical means, but then we lost him.

"That is how intelligence works. You can get to a person immediately, or you can just lose him immediately," he said.

"I think the safest place would be on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, because this line we are not including in each others areas, so therefore you can easily switch sides."Bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, is the world's most wanted man with a 25-million-dollar price on his head.

"One would prefer that hes captured somewhere outside Pakistan. By some other people," Musharraf said.