| CIA denies contact with bin Laden |
The CIA is rejecting claims that a US intelligence agent met Osama bin Laden two months before the September 11 terror attacks.
French newspaper Le Figaro said the meeting took place between July 4 and 14.
The CIA says the report is "complete and utter nonsense".
"Numerous comments in the media recently have reiterated a widely circulated but incorrect notion that the CIA once had a relationship with Osama bin Laden," said a spokeswoman.
"For the record, you should know that the CIA never employed, paid, or maintained any relationship whatsoever with bin Laden."
Le Figaro said Bin Laden was being treated for a serious kidney ailment at the American Hospital in Dubai.
He was visited by members of his family and the local representative of the CIA, a professional partner of the hospital's administrative management told the paper.
The agent was seen taking the lift to bin Laden's floor, Le Figaro claimed.
The paper said the CIA agent later boasted to several friends that he had visited the terror suspect, who at the time was wanted for the bombings of US embassies in Africa and the attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen.
Story filed: 18:15 Wednesday 31st October 2001
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