Pakistan strongly denies allegations that it has struck a deal which would allow US troops to hunt for Osama Bin Laden on its soil.

The weekly New Yorker magazine alleged that in return the US would support Islamabad's decision to pardon the top nuclear scientist AQ Khan, who in February confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Iran.

The magazine quoted an unnamed Pentagon official as saying that US Special Forces will be transferred from Iraq to Pakistan to hunt for Bin Laden.

Islamabad said the New Yorker's claims were "absolutely absurd" and "untrue".

A German court quashes the conviction of Mounir al-Motassadek, the Moroccan man jailed for being an accessory to more than 3,000 murders and membership of the Hamburg al-Qaeda cell behind the 11 September 2001 attacks.

Germany's Federal Criminal Court threw out the verdict and ordered a fresh trial. The presiding judge said the evidence against him had not been sufficient for a conviction.

"The fight against terrorism cannot be a wild, unjust war," Klaus Tolksdorf said. However he added that Mr Motassadek was "far from being beyond suspicion".

A lawyer representing American relatives of victims, Andreas Schulz, said the verdict "will surely meet with incomprehension on the part of the families".