"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", said a statement issued by the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

In its September 21 issue, French regional daily L'Est Republicain quoted France's DGSE foreign intelligence service as saying the Saudi secret services were convinced the al Qaeda leader died of typhoid in Pakistan in late August.

Time magazine separately posted an article on its Web site citing an unidentified Saudi source, who claimed bin Laden was stricken with a water-borne disease and may already be dead.

France, the United States and Britain have said they were unable to confirm the report.

French President Jacques Chirac told reporters bin Laden's death "has not been confirmed in any way whatsoever and so I have no comment to make" and that he was surprised a confidential note had been published. France has launched a probe into the leak.

"No comment, no knowledge," said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when asked about the French article by reporters in New York.

In a BBC interview, British Prime Minister Tony Blair also said: "I haven't heard anything that indicates that might be the case."

Bin Laden is rumored 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.

Reuters