'CIA trained Pakistanis to eliminate bin Laden' - claim
The CIA reportedly secretly trained about 60 Pakistani intelligence officers to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in 1999.
The operation was arranged by then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his chief of intelligence with Bill Clinton's administration.
In turn, the United States promised to lift sanctions on Pakistan and provide an economic aid package, reports said.
Mr Sharif was ousted in a military coup and the plan was shelved later that year.
The plan was set in motion less than 12 months after US cruise missile strikes against bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan that the Clinton administration officials believe narrowly missed hitting the exiled Saudi militant.
The clandestine operation was part of an effort by the United States to get bin Laden than has been previously reported, including consideration of broader military action, such as massive bombing raids and Special Forces assaults.
The Pakistani commando team was up and running and ready to strike by October 1999.
In a separate report, Sudan offered in the early spring of 1996 to arrest bin Laden and place him in Saudi custody.
The Clinton administration, however, was unable to persuade the Saudis to accept bin Laden, and lacking a case to indict him in US courts at the time, gave up on the capture.
Sudan expelled bin Laden to Afghanistan in May 1996. Since then, US officials have accused him of masterminding the embassy bombings of 1998, the bombing of the USS Cole and the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.
