Al-Qaeda man 'died in Pakistan'

Pakistan says it has identified a man killed in an army operation late last year as a leading al-Qaeda suspect.

The authorities said the dead man was Abdur Rehman Khadar, who they said was a Canadian national of Egyptian origin.

He was one of eight alleged militants killed during an army operation in October near the Afghan border, in the tribal region of South Waziristan.

The area has been a hub of activity for members of Afghanistan's ousted Taleban regime and al-Qaeda.

It is one of the main suspected hideouts of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told French news agency AFP that Khadar's identity was established using DNA testing because his body had been badly mutilated during the fighting.

Another of the men killed in October's operation had already been identified as an alleged separatist leader from the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, a mainly ethnic Uighur Muslim region.

President Pervez Musharraf has vowed to hunt down al-Qaeda and Taleban militants hiding in Pakistan.

The government has rounded up more than 500 al-Qaeda suspects and turned them over to the United States.