Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, one of the world's most hunted men since the Sept. 11 attacks, knows how to hide and the main hope for capturing him is a tip to authorities revealing his location, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

Stretches of silence since bin Laden went on the run after the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, have been punctuated with publicly broadcast tapes that remind supporters of his presence.

The most recent, a videotape accompanied by audio recordings, were broadcast by al-Jazeera Arabic television station on Wednesday, the eve of the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks blamed on bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

A CIA analysis of the audio messages was "inconclusive" about whether one of the voices was that of bin Laden, but had "high confidence" the other voice belonged to his main deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, a CIA official said.

The video showed bin Laden and Zawahri walking on rocky terrain with patches of greenery using walking sticks and with automatic rifles slung over their shoulders, and it dominated U.S. television coverage on Wednesday, drawing attention away from a speech on U.S. security by President Bush.

U.S. intelligence officials said the release of the tape could be a signal to followers to launch an attack, or may have been strategically aimed at getting maximum attention because of the Sept. 11 anniversary.

It was unclear when and where the video was filmed. U.S. officials generally believe bin Laden is alive and hiding in the rugged, tribal border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"We are having a hard time finding him not because we don't know where to look, but because it's such an incredibly difficult and harsh terrain and such a hostile reception is given to people who are looking for him," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss said.

"It really has turned out to be the badlands where the lawmen have a hard time going," the Florida Republican said.

'STILL HAVE TEETH'

Bin Laden has learned over the years how to escape detection from U.S. intelligence surveillance methods and leave "no footprint," a U.S. government source said.

"He has figured out how we find people," and has stopped using electronic equipment that can be monitored, he said.

Bin Laden is able to influence al Qaeda from hiding "to the extent that he can communicate in an 18th century way by letters and couriers," the government source said. "For the purposes of his organization, I think just the fact that people know that he's alive that's good enough."

The best chance of catching him may be through a tip, some U.S. officials say, but so far a $25 million bounty has not yielded his location.

Authorities have captured or killed other senior al Qaeda members, but the group remains a threat, U.S. officials said.

"The network still has some capability obviously, it's been damaged but I don't think it's been eradicated by any means," Goss said. "They still have teeth."

In the messages broadcast this week, Zawahri urged supporters to bury Americans in "the graveyard of Iraq," while the voice purporting to be bin Laden praised the Sept. 11 hijackers but made no reference to any recent events.

Goss said the "great weak link" in U.S. intelligence efforts was infiltrating terror groups to gain access to their plans and intentions for attacks. He said he would push for U.S. spy agencies to develop that capability over time.

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