Weeks before his arrest in Rawalpindi, Al Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed met his boss Osama bin Laden, according to Pakistani officials.

They, however, did not reveal when or where the meeting took place.

Following Sheikh Mohammed's interrogation, Pakistani officials were quoted as saying that 'there is no doubt he [bin Laden] is alive and well'.

"We believe that he has changed his hideout and moved away. He keeps shifting. He surely knows that Sheikh Mohammed has been captured and will avoid moving to places he knew about," they said.

It was Sheikh Mohammed's arrest that led to the information that some of bin Laden's wives and children were in Iran, the officials said.

Significantly, Sheikh Mohammed, who eluded intelligence agencies since he was spotted in Karachi last year, was captured after a colleague, who wanted to grab the $25 million reward announced by the US, betrayed him.

"I am not going to tell you how we captured him, but Sheikh Mohammed knows who did him in. He was shocked when he was arrested," they said.

Sheikh Mohammed also told his interrogators that bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, slipped out of Pakistan into West Asia some time back.

The officials said Sheikh Mohammed had not revealed much and most of the information came from a computer, notebook and CDs found in his possession.

"The information that has come by virtue of his arrest is immense. It reveals his contacts in the Philippines, Europe and the United States," they said.

The War Against Terror: The Complete Coverage