THE US was pondering the release, on Tuesday, photos of Osama bin Laden's burial at sea,

a US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The Obama administration has been weighing whether to make public photos of bin Laden's corpse as proof that he had been killed during a raid by US forces on his mansion hideout in Pakistan.

The al-Qaeda leader's body was flown out of the country, brought to a US aircraft carrier, given Islamic funeral rites and slipped into the north Arabian Sea in a weighted body bag on Monday.

There is also video of the burial ceremony, a second US official said.

The first US official did not offer details about the decision-making process ahead of the possible release of photos on Tuesday.

But President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser acknowledged earlier on Tuesday that the Obama administration was weighing the pros and cons of releasing photographic evidence.

“There is not a question at this point I think in anybody's mind that bin Laden is dead, and so I know there are some people who are interested in having that visual proof.

“This is something we are taking into account,” John Brennan told National Public Radio.

“But what we don’t want to do is to release anything that might be either misunderstood or that would cause other problems.”

“We're looking at these issues and we’ll make the right decisions.”

Releasing photos of the burial at sea could be less controversial than images of bin Laden’s corpse. His shrouded body was placed in a weighted bag and eased into the North Arabian Sea, the US military said.

Still, some analysts warned that objections from some Muslim clerics to the sea burial could stoke anti-American sentiment.

The clerics questioned whether the US followed proper Islamic tradition, saying Muslims should not be buried at sea unless they died during a voyage.

Meanwhile, global reactions to the killing of Osama bin Laden have continued with the United Nations (UN) voicing international relief and Moslem leaders in the US restating the need for a world free of terrorism, Empowered Newswire reported.

In a statement on Monday at the UN, Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said the death of Osama bin Laden, represented a “watershed moment” in the fight against the scourge of terrorism.

Nigeria also welcomed the news, through the statement of the UN Security Council of which it is currently a member, as the council statement represents all the member nations on it, as well as the UN as a global body.

Ki-Moon also called for the remembrance of the victims of global terrorism, many of which were masterminded by bin Laden in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

The UN scribe said for instance, by his own admission, Osama bin Laden was responsible, among many others, for the infamous September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US, killing about 3,000 people in one day.

He described bin Laden’s death as “a watershed moment in our common global fight against terrorism. The crimes of Al-Qaida touched most continents, bringing tragedy and loss of life to thousands of men, women and children.”

In a statement, he voiced relief at the news and commended “the work and the determined and principled commitment of many people in the world, who have been struggling to eradicate international terrorism.”

The Secretary-General stressed that the UN would continue to lead the global campaign against terrorism, drawing from the counter-terrorism strategy adopted by the General Assembly.

His remarks were echoed by General Assembly President, Joseph Deiss, who said the UN’s fight against terrorism was “undertaken in the name of all victims. Terrorists must know that there will be no impunity for their barbaric and cowardly deeds.”

Mr Deiss stressed that terrorism remained unacceptable, regardless of what form or purpose it took.

Later on Monday, the United Nations Security Council also issued a statement welcoming bin Laden’s death.

Reading the statement on Monday evening at the UN, Ambassador Gérard Araud of France, the monthly rotating Security Council president, said the 15-member council welcomed the news that Mr bin Laden “will never again be able to perpetrate such acts of terrorism.”

The statement urged all countries to remain vigilant and intensify their efforts to defeat terrorism, including by working together to bring to justice the perpetrators, organisers and sponsors of terrorist attacks.

“The Security Council stresses that terrorism will not be defeated by military force, law enforcement measures and intelligence operations alone, it can only be defeated by a sustained and comprehensive approach involving the active participation and collaboration of all states and relevant international and regional organisations and civil society to address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism and to impede, impair, isolate and incapacitate the terrorist threat,” it said.

In the US, Muslim-American civil society groups said terrorism message continued to be irrelevant and bin Laden’s violent messages and actions had been shown to be bankrupt.

A statement from the Moslem Public Affairs Council said “in the light of the widespread democratic protests sweeping the Middle East, which have demonstrated the power and effectiveness of peaceful protests to enact political change and realise the aspirations of the people, bin Laden and al-Qaida’s pro-violence messages have been exposed as bankrupt and misguided.”

Also, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organisation, said bin Laden had never represented Muslims.

“As we have stated repeatedly since the 9/11 terror attacks, bin Laden never represented Muslims or Islam,” said a CAIR press release.

“In fact, in addition to the killing of thousands of Americans, he and al-Qaida caused the deaths of countless Muslims worldwide,” it added.

Also at the UN, Yury Fedotov, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), noted the huge number of lives lost around the world as a result of the activities of Al-Qaida.

Welcoming the news of bin Laden’s death, he stressed that nevertheless, “there remains significant work in addressing terrorism, including tackling conditions that lead to or facilitate terrorism and building the legal basis needed to work against this threat to human security in a humane and effective manner.”

The Islamic Society of North America, one of the country’s largest Muslim organisations, praised President Obama for his anti-terrorism efforts.

“The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) joins all Americans in thanking President Obama for fulfilling his promise to bring Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaida and perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks, to justice,” said an ISNA press release.

Imam Mohamed Magid, president of ISNA, said Americans were standing together against terrorism and in defense of the country’s principles.

Salam Al-Marayati, president of MPAC, said bin Laden’s senseless acts showed disregard for humanity.

“His actions and those of al-Qaida have violated the sacred Islamic teachings upholding the sanctity of all human life,” Al-Marayati said, adding that “his acts of senseless terror have been met with moral outrage by Muslims worldwide at every turn in the past decade.”

Also, China said it endorsed the US assault which killed bin Laden in spite of its friction with Washington.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, in a statement on Tuesday, said China was also a victim of terror.

“We have noted the announcement and believe that this is a major event and a positive development in the international struggle against terrorism.

“China advocates that the international community should strengthen cooperation,” it said adding that “China believes that fighting terrorism should treat both the symptoms and the root causes and strive to eradicate the sources nurturing terrorism.”

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