KABUL -- Terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden has probably died of kidney failure but the United States cannot yet claim total victory in Afghanistan, according to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf's comments came in an interview broadcast as Afghan Interim Leader Hamid Karzai began an international foray -- including a crucial conference of donors in Japan Monday -- to win help for the bankrupt administration.

The three-month old military campaign in Afghanistan, launched in retaliation for the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, has wound down after December's ousting of the hardline Taleban regime and the dispersal of the Al-Qaeda organization the Taleban had protected, AFP reported.

But a key U.S. aim of capturing Al-Qaeda head Bin Laden and Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has not been achieved.

Musharraf said it was likely Bin Laden was dead, although other possibilities were he could be hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

"I give the highest priority now, to be frank, that he's dead, for the reason that he is a patient. He's a kidney patient," Musharraf said in a CNN interview broadcast Friday.

"And I know -- we know -- that he'd donated two dialysis machines to Afghanistan. One was specifically for his own personal use and the other for general use.

"I really don't know whether he's been getting that treatment in Afghanistan now. And the photographs that lately have been shown on television show him extremely weak. I would give the first priority that he's dead," he said.

Musharraf also declared that there had been a victory in Afghanistan after the ousting of the Taleban government.

"I think there has been a victory, but the total victory has not been there, because Al-Qaeda is on the run. Maybe some elements are still there but gradually they will be mopped up.

Because Omar and Bin Laden had not been captured and their fate was unknown, "To that extent I wouldn't give 100 percent success."

In Washington, the Bush Administration said it was unable to confirm or deny whether Bin Laden was dead.

"We just don't know. I don't think the president would view that as an unwelcome event, but the fact of the matter is, we do not know," said Ari Fleischer, spokesman for President George W. Bush.

The commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks, also said he had no special knowledge of Bin Laden's fate.

"But I do know this: The world is not large enough for him to hide," he said.