A French newspaper has reported that Al Qa’ida leader Osama Bin Laden has died and has published confirmed documents from the French secret service to substantiate its claim.

The French regional daily paper, l’Est Republicain, on Saturday, September 23, 2006 claimed that Bin Laden, public enemy number of America’s so-called War on Terrorism, died of typhoid in Pakistan last month.

The chief of al-Qa’ida “was a victim of a severe typhoid crisis while in Pakistan on 23 August, 2006″, the paper said. Bin Laden’s geographical isolation meant that medical assistance was impossible, and his lower limbs were said to have paralysed, it added.

France and the United States said they could not confirm the report in L’Est Republicain which quoted France’s DGSE foreign intelligence service as saying the Saudi secret services were convinced the al Qaeda leader had died of typhoid in Pakistan in late August.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington, however, issued a statement saying: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has no evidence to support recent media reports that Osama bin Laden is dead. Information that has been reported otherwise is purely speculative and cannot be independently verified.”

However, this has not stopped a wave of international speculation, followed by a stream of deanials.

President Jacques Chirac of France, where the report originated, said it was in “in no way whatsoever confirmed”, and officials from Washington to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, said there was no information to back it.

Meanwhile, critics are sceptical saying that if there was any truth in this news then American secret service would have known about it first, since their country’s war on terror team are dedicated to finding Bin Laden dead or alive.

The Saudi-born bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until its Taliban government was overthrown by U.S.-backed forces after al Qaeda’s September 11 attacks on the United States.

Since then, U.S. and Pakistani officials have regularly said they believe bin Laden is hiding somewhere on the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Bin Laden is rumoured to have been suffering from kidney ailments and receiving dialysis treatment. His last videotaped message was released in late 2004 but several low-quality audio tapes have been released this year.