Pakistan to seek Mehsud DNA proof

The Pakistani government says it intends to provide conclusive proof that Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, is dead.

"All the credible intelligence I have from that area does finally confirm [his death]," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the BBC.

But the government says it hopes to get DNA evidence to back up its claims.

Baitullah Mehsud was reported to have been killed in a US missile strike last week in his remote tribal stronghold.

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool, in Islamabad, says that the Pakistani government is growing increasingly confident that it will soon be able to prove that Baitullah Mehsud was killed in the attack.

In Washington, US National Security Adviser Jim Jones put the level of US certainty that he had been killed "in the 90% category".

But Taliban sources have denied these claims, insisting he is still alive.

The government had previously said that it would be extremely difficult to get DNA proof of his death.

But Mr Malik told the BBC's Urdu service that they did have DNA from Mr Mehsud's brother, who was killed a few months ago.

However, correspondents say that getting hold of Baitullah Mehsud's body in the remote and hostile terrain of South Waziristan could prove to be a stumbling block.

The Pakistani interior minister has challenged the Taliban to prove its leaders are still alive - something the Taliban commanders dismissed as a ploy to flush them out into the open

Taliban turmoil

On Sunday a key aide of the militant commander said that Baitullah Mehsud was gravely ill and had not been injured in the missile attack.

It is thought that in making the statement the Taliban are preparing the ground for an announcement that Pakistan's most wanted man is in fact dead, correspondents say.

But the fate of the entire leadership of the Pakistani Taliban is subject to intense speculation, after days of conflicting reports about its fate.

Mr Malik has said that he believes the next tier of Taliban leadership is in turmoil, after it was reported that up to two potential successors were killed in a gun battle.

Senior Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud - who contacted the BBC on Saturday to say his chief was alive and well - was one of those reported to have been killed in the alleged fight over the succession.

However he got in touch with the BBC on Monday to say that he was in fact alive.