The French daily L’Est Republicain announced on its website on Saturday that the most wanted man on earth, Osama bin Laden, died in Pakistan in August of typhoid, mainly because the terrorist mastermind’s geographical location made all potential medical assistance impossible.

"His geographic isolation provoked by constant fleeing is believed to have made medical assistance impossible (and) on September 4, 2006, the Saudi security services received preliminary information of his death," the paper reported.

The paper referred to a classified “defence secret” from the French DGSE intelligence services to be its source of information. The French service is said to have obtained the intelligence from a parallel Saudi intelligence service. It added that President Chirac, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and France's interior and defence ministers were all informed on Thursday. In the report, Saudi Arabia was convinced that the Al Qaeda leader is truly dead.

A copy of what was said to be the DGSE document was printed in full, an excerpt of which read thus: “According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi intelligence services are said to have acquired the information that Osama bin Laden is dead. The information gleaned by the Saudis indicates that the head of Al Qaeda was a victim of a very strong attack of typhoid... in Pakistan on August 23, 2006.”

"The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al Qaeda was a victim while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, of a very serious case of typhoid which led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs.

The French defence ministry confirmed the information in a statement issued shortly after the publication in L’Est Republicain, admitting a leak. "The Defence Minister has asked that an inquiry be carried out to determine the origin of the leak that can be punished by criminal charges," the statement read.

Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network was based in Afghanistan before September 11, 2001, when the US led coalition launched a war of terror on him, chasing him into hiding. The war also led to the overthrow of the fundamental Taliban government that harboured him and that had deprived the country of almost every basic right, especially women who were treated more as household servants.

Since going into hiding, bin Laden has mainly communicated through video and audiotapes, which are variously broadcast on Al jazeera News Agency, and published on extremists’ Islamic websites. The last of such videotapes was released in late 2004, at the eve of the US presidential elections.