Who is actually Al-Qaida's intellectual leader

Al-Qaida's "intellectual leader" is not Osama bin Laden, who has been credited as the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, but his Egyptian deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, the US intelligence chief said on Tuesday.

Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence, downplayed the bin Laden's significance in an interview with ABC television, calling him "more a figurehead than anything else."

"Quite frankly, the real intellectual leader of Al-Qaida is not Osama bin Laden, but it's the number two, Zawahiri, who's an Egyptian, which is an interesting contrast," he said.

"Most of the leadership positions in Al-Qaida are Egyptian, not Saudi, and certainly not Osama bin Laden."

McConnell's comments come as the US administration is explaining why Bin Laden is still at large six years after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Bin Laden himself surfaced this week in his first video tape in nearly three years, which showed he was still alive as of last month despite rumors he might be ill or dead.

McConnell said hunting down bin Laden remains a high priority despite the difficulties in finding him.

"He is our number one focus, our number one target, and if we could find him we could finish this situation," he said.

"As I mentioned, the intellectual horsepower or intellectual heavy lifting in Al-Qaida is done by Zawahiri. But Osama bin Laden is a figure and even if we were able to find him and remove him from the scene he would still be looked at as a martyr," he said.