Haitham al-Yemeni had been under surveillance by the US Central Intelligence Agency as it sought information in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, ABC and NBC televisions said.

After the recent capture of Abu Faraj al-Libbi in Pakistan, al-Yemeni was considered Al-Qaeda's number three leader, the report said.

NBC said the killing of Al-Yemeni was thought to be linked to the capture of al-Libbi, but gave no details. According to ABC, the United States acted because officials believed the Yemen militant was about to go into hiding.

The CIA would neither confirm nor deny the report.

Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the suggestion in the report that the killing occurred on Pakistani territory was not true.

"Nothing of this sort has happened in the Pakistani territory and if something has happened in any other country, we do not know," Rashid told AFP.

The CIA is authorized to target top Al-Qaeda operatives anywhere in the world, ABC said, adding that it was unsure whether Pakistan had been informed in advance of the US decision to stage the attack.

Former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vince Cannistraro, quoted by ABC, said al-Yemeni's death was "an important step that has been taken in that it has eliminated another level of experienced leadership from the directorate of Al-Qaeda itself."

The CIA used a Predator in November 2002 to blow up a vehicle carrying six Al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen.

The US army has three squadrons of Predator, including the MQ-1 - equipped with Hellfire missiles.

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