Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden is still alive but keeping a low profile, anti-U.S. Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said in a video aired late Sunday.

"According to my information I think that Osama is still alive," Hekmatyar said in the video released by Al-Arabiya television.

"It is good" that bin Laden "does not appear in the media," and "it is wise" that he "does not issue statements or tapes, even after a long while," said the warlord.

Bin Laden's long-time silence has fuelled speculation that the world's most-wanted man may have died.

The most recent video of bin Laden was released in late 2004, and the last audio recording was made public in mid-2006.

The warlord, a former Afghan prime minister, is on a U.S. wanted list and carries a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head.

Hekmatyar is believed to be hiding in eastern Afghanistan or Pakistan while leading an insurgency separate from the Taliban Islamic movement against the Afghan government and foreign troops under the command of NATO and the U.S. military.

In January, Hekmatyar said fighters loyal to his group had helped Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri escape a massive U.S. special forces hunt in the eastern Afghan mountains in late 2001.

Editor: Yan