WASHINGTON Ñ The Bush administration has contacted the governments of Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Sudan about the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden.

U.S. officials said Saudi Arabia is one of several countries that Bin Laden would most likely choose had he escaped Afghanistan. The other countries are Chechnya, the disputed Kashmir region, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Officials said the Bush administration has raised the prospect with Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. They said they were pledged cooperation by all three countries. The officials said that Bin Laden might have sought refuge along the Saudi-Yemeni border, a stronghold of his Al Qaida group.

Last week, U.S. government sources said the CIA has assessed that Bin Laden fled Afghanistan in December. The sources said Bin Laden probably escaped Afghanistan by sea before U.S. troops attacked his network of caves in Tora Bora.

In contrast, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf raised the prospect that Bin Laden died from a kidney ailment. Musharraf said Bin Laden required daily treatment which he could not obtain during his flight from U.S. forces.

"There are a number of places, but I don't think there are many places that would like to have him right now," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.

In a television interview on Sunday, Rumsfeld said the United States does not have evidence that Bin Laden is dead. But he appeared to place greater stress that Bin Laden had escaped, probably with the help of Afghan sympathizers.

"He could be dead; he could be alive," Rumsfeld said. "He could be in Afghanistan, he could be somewhere else. We're looking for him, and I think we'll find him."

"Right now, Bin Laden and [Taliban leader Mohammad] Omar are not currently functioning effectively leading their terrorist networks, they are being driven," he said. "They are running, they are hiding and we are after them."

On another issue, Rumsfeld denied that Saudi Arabia has requested a withdrawal of the nearly 5,000 U.S. troops from the kingdom. Rumsfeld described U.S.-Saudi Arabian relations as strong.

"This is a very long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia," Rumsfeld said. "How it will evolve in the future is, of course, up to the Saudis."

But Gulf defense sources said relations between Riyad and Washington have been strained amid a quiet dialogue regarding a U.S. pullout of troops from the kingdom. The Kuwaiti A-Siyassa daily reported last week that the Pentagon has prepared a withdrawal to transfer U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia to both Bahrain, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

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