'US near seizing Laden'

"If he has a watch, he should be looking at it because the clock is ticking. He will be caught," Joseph Cofer Black, the US State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, told private Geo television network.

Asked if concrete progress had been made during the last two months when Pakistan has arrested dozens of terror suspects including some key al-Qaeda operatives Black said, "Yes, I would say this."

Black, who briefed a group of Pakistani journalists after talks with officials here Friday, said he could not predict exactly when bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda fugitives would be nabbed.

"What I tell people, I would be surprised but not necessarily shocked if we wake up tomorrow and he's been caught along with all his lieutenants. That can happen because of the programmes and infrastructure in place," he told Geo.

Bin Laden and his top associate, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding some place along the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.