The White House denied on Wednesday that the administration has shut down a program to capture Osama bin Laden, leader of the terrorist organization al- Qaida.

"It's flatly untrue," spokesman Tony Snow said at a briefing, denying allegations raised by Democrats that the government had shut down a program designed to capture Osama bin Laden.

The CIA, in response to a more diffuse al-Qaida, had reshaped its unit dealing with al-Qaida to reflect the diffuse threat, he said.

"It was a reorganization, not a reduction in effort and commitment," he said.

Snow insisted that CIA's efforts to locate bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida figures had not been downgraded, and that the CIA's most experienced agent working to capture bin Laden "remain fully engaged in the fight."

The New York Times reported early July that the CIA had closed a unit that had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants for a decade.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has cited the disbanding of the CIA unit as an example of what he called misplaced priorities in the Bush administration.

Source: Xinhua