'If they admit he's alive then the threat to the command structure of the organisation will increase and the coalition will intensify their efforts to find him.'
He said the statement was a response to a wave of criticism from Muslims all over the world after the broadcast of a video last month by a Gulf TV station showing bin Laden, his deputy and a man identified as one of the 11 September hijackers.
In one excerpt of the video - broadcast by Al Jazeera on April 15 - a man identified as Ahmed Ibrahim Al Haznawi speaks to the camera.
