CIA team to examine Osama's Abbottabad compound

Washington: Pakistan has agreed to allow a CIA forensic team to examine the compound in Abbottabad where Osama bin Laden was killed and the US agency will use sophisticated equipment to search for possible

Al-Qaeda materials hidden inside walls at the site.

US officials said the CIA team may arrive in Pakistan within days and head to the compound in Abbottabad, 120 kms from capital Islamabad, with an objective to scrub the site for items that were not recovered by American commandos, The

Washington Post reported.

The arrangement with the Pakistan Government would allow the CIA, for the first time, to enter the complex which it had previously scrutinized only from a distance, using satellites and stealth drones.

They said since the US assault team that killed bin Laden was at the site only for 40 minutes, the CIA team will make use of the visit "to do another, more thorough, look."

"CIA Deputy Director Michael J Morell negotiated access to the Abbottabad site during a trip to Islamabad last week, when he met with the head of Pakistan's main intelligence service, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha," the Post quoted US officials as saying.

Pakistan's agreement is seen as an encouraging sign that the two spy services will continue cooperating despite anger in Islamabad over the American operation to kill bin Laden, and a series of recent ruptures between the CIA and its Pakistani counterpart, the Post said.