Top foreign policy adviser says bin Laden probably alive

WASHINGTON -- The White House is concerned that Osama bin Laden's fractured terror network could be regenerating in havens across the globe, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, President Bush's top foreign policy adviser said the United States continues to aggressively pursue bin Laden because "we assume he's alive," even as his al-Qaida network operates without its former command structure.

"Cogs are being pulled out of this organization every day," Rice said. "They're on the run."

Even so, U.S. officials are at a loss to judge how dangerous the remnants of al-Qaida could be. "It's a little hard to know what effect just breaking all that up is having," she said.

The 30-minute interview was conducted in Rice's office, located in a sunny northwest corner of the White House. Beside the "out" box on her orderly desk sat three bins labeled "intel,", "to read" and "immediate action" -- all piled high with papers.

She discussed a number of foreign policy topics including:

Iraq, which she said is the subject of an intense review of how best to control Saddam Hussein's quest for weapons of mass destruction and how to end his regime. "Military power is always an option, but it's not the only option," Rice said.

Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader who she said must "take some really large-scale and decisive steps against terrorist organizations." Dismissing calls to cut off ties with Arafat, she said: "We're not going to go around him."

American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped Jan. 23 in Pakistan. Rice said the Pakistan police have been "aggressive and active" in searching for Pearl but she does not know whether the journalist is alive or dead.

She said Abu Zubaydah, an elusive 30-year-old Palestinian, is a "very dangerous man" but Rice said she could not confirm reports that he is al-Qaida's new chief of operations. That's because she and other U.S. officials need to know more about how the terrorist network has sought to recover from the U.S.-led attacks in Afghanistan.

"The fact is I don't think we know how al-Qaida has rearranged itself as it has lost various people," Rice said.

U.S. intelligence officials say many of the surviving rank-and-file al-Qaida members from Afghanistan appear to have been left to their own devices, with some going into hiding, others regrouping to fight on, and still others scattering across the world.

A few dozen have fled to lawless Somalia. Others have slipped into Iran.

Many native Afghans and Pakistanis in al-Qaida probably melted back into their own nations, officials say.

U.S. intelligence is tracking events in numerous other places where al-Qaida members may try to go, including Yemen, Chechnya, Sudan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Palestinian territory and the Philippines.