Following last month's capture of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, American commanders in Afghanistan have expressed new optimism they will eventually find bin Laden. Spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said the military now believed it could seize him within months.

"We have a variety of intelligence and we're sure we're going to catch Usama bin Laden and Mullah Omar this year," Hilferty said. "We've learned lessons from Iraq and we're getting improved intelligence from the Afghan people."

Hilferty declined to comment on where exactly bin Laden or Mullah Omar might be hiding, but his optimism coincides with comments from U.S. officials in Washington that the military is planning a spring offensive against Taliban and Al Qaeda holdouts.

American forces are pinning hopes for better intelligence from locals on new security teams setting up in provincial capitals across a swath of troubled southern and eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border.

The security teams are supposed to open the way for millions of dollars in U.S. development aid and allow the Afghan government to regain control over lawless areas largely populated by ethnic Pashtuns, from which the Taliban drew their main support.

This month alone, about 70 people have died in violence, including two international peacekeepers killed by homicide bombers in the relatively peaceful capital, Kabul. The Taliban claimed responsibility for those attacks.

The spring offensive touted by U.S. defense officials Wednesday would come just when the new security teams are supposed to be up and running, and warmer weather opens the high passes through which insurgents slip.

Hilferty declined to comment on the proposed plans, saying he could not talk about future operations.

Pakistani officials said Thursday they would not allow American forces to use their territory for any new offensive.

"As a matter of fact they (the United States) have not contacted us for this purpose," said Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, a senior Pakistani security official who coordinates with U.S. counterparts on counterterrorism.

An intelligence official said Pakistani authorities also had no specific information about bin Laden's whereabouts.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally, would face withering criticism from political opponents, particularly Islamic hard-liners controlling two key border provinces, if American forces were deployed inside Pakistan.

Pakistan says it has arrested more than 500 Al Qaeda men over the past two years and many of them have been handed over to the United States.

In January, Pakistani forces raided a border village where Al Qaeda fighters were believed to be hiding. The interior minister said 18 suspected terrorists were captured, but he did not identify them.

The area is close to the Afghan provinces of Paktika and Khost, regions where the U.S. military says bin Laden loyalists are active.

The 11,000-strong U.S.-led force hunting insurgents includes about 500 soldiers stationed at Khost airport and more troops at two smaller bases in Paktika. All three regularly come under fire.