WASHINGTON – Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday denied recent press reports that Osama bin Laden is in Tehran and insisted that the Al-Qaeda leader is, in fact, in the US capital of Washington.

"Rest assured that he's in Washington. I think there's a high chance he's there," the Iranian leader told ABC television in an interview.

Without backing up the claim, the Iranian leader said he had "heard" that bin Laden was in the US capital.

"Yes, I did. He's there. Because he was a previous partner of Mr. Bush," he said referring to former president George W. Bush.

"They were colleagues, in fact, in the old days. You know that. They were in the oil business together. They worked together. Mr. bin Laden never cooperated with Iran but he cooperated with Mr. Bush," Ahmadinejad said.

He added that, at any rate, US officials ought to know the extremist Islamic leaders whereabouts.

"The US government has invaded Afghanistan in order to arrest bin Laden. They probably know where bin Laden is. If they don't know he is, why did they invade? Could we know the intelligence?" he asked ABC.

"First they should have tried to find his location, then invade, those who did not know about his location first they invaded and then they tried to find out where he is, is that logical?"

The US State Department, after hearing Ahmadinejad's claims, joked Wednesday it found no trace of bin Laden despite a thorough search.

"We've done an intensive search here at the Department of State -- every nook and cranny, every rock -- and we can safely report that Osama bin Laden is not here," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.

"You mean Greater Washington, or you just looked at the State Department?" a reporter asked as he played along with the joke from Crowley, the spokesman for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"Just the confines of the State Department, but it was reported by the president of Iran that he's here in Washington. That's news to us," Crowley said before turning to the news of the day.

"And thank you for laughing," he said, smiling broadly.

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