Pakistan said Wednesday it had received additional US evidence against Osama bin Laden but refused to say whether it conclusively linked the Saudi dissident to the September 11 attacks in the United States.
"The additional information that we have received today is being studied by the concerned people but I cannot make any additional comment about it," said foreign ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan.
"Now we have received some material and we are examining it, so how do you want us to jump the gun and reach a conclusion before we have seen the material?" he chided reporters at a press briefing.
NATO chief George Robertson said Tuesday that the 19-nation alliance had received "clear and compelling" evidence showing links between Bin Laden, his al-Qaeda network and Afghanistan.
He said the evidence allowed NATO to activate, for the first time in its 52-year history, a clause in its charter which states that an attack from abroad on one member is considered an attack on all.
Khan said it was natural that Washington would have shared the results of its investigations with its allies in NATO ahead of Pakistan, which has offered its "full cooperation" as a frontline state in the effort to snuff out alleged terrorist bases in neighboring Afghanistan.
"The US is a part of NATO and I think the partners in NATO may have thought it appropriate that other partners should receive the evidence before other nations," he said -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
