One official said he had seen a classified intelligence report stating Mehsud was dead and buried, but that agents had not seen the body as the area was under Taliban control.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik earlier said he could confirm the death of Mehsud's wife but not of the Taliban leader himself, although information pointed in that direction.

'I can confirm to the extent that his wife is dead, and probably one of his brothers, but we do not have any evidence that he's dead,' Malik was quoted as saying.

The US has declined to confirm Mehsud's death, but said if correct, it would undoubtedly make Pakistani people safer.

'We have obviously seen reports -- even by members of the Taliban -- that Baitullah Mehsud is dead. We can't, with a hundred percent certainty, verify that,' White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday.

'What I will say is this: If the reports of Baitullah Mehsud's death are correct, there is no doubt that the Pakistani people are safer as a result of it,' Gibbs said when asked what Mehsud's death would mean for President Barack Obama's strategy for stabilising the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.