20110408
reuters

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Obama administration took some heat off Pakistan on Sunday, saying it had no evidence that Islamabad knew Osama bin Laden was living in the country before he was killed by U.S. commandos in a garrison town a short drive from the capital.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani is scheduled to "take the nation into confidence" in parliament on Monday, his first statement to the people more than a week after the attack embarrassed the country and raised fears of a new rift between Islamabad and Washington.

Suspicion has deepened that Pakistan's pervasive Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, which has a long history of contacts with militant groups, may have had ties with the al Qaeda leader -- or that at least some of its agents did.

Pakistan has dismissed such suggestions and says it has paid the highest price in human life and money supporting the U.S. war on militancy launched after bin Laden's followers staged the September 11, 2001, attacks on America.

The U.S. national security adviser said that while bin Laden's residence for several years in a compound in Abbottabad, 50 km (30 miles) north of Islamabad, "needs to be investigated", there was nothing to suggest the government or security establishment knew he was there.

"I can tell you directly that I've not seen evidence that would tell us that the political, the military, or the intelligence leadership had foreknowledge of bin Laden," Tom Donilon told NBC's "Meet the Press" when asked if Pakistan was guilty of harbouring the al Qaeda leader.

"How could this have happened in Pakistan?" Donilon said. "We need to investigate it. We need to work with the Pakistanis. And we're pressing the Pakistanis on this investigation."