Washington - The United States expects that Pakistan will allow it to question the women apprehended at Osama bin Laden's compound "soon", a US official said late on Monday.

"The US expects to be granted access soon," the official said, without providing more details.

Tensions have run high between the two anti-terror allies in the wake of the US commando raid that killed bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, in his compound near the Pakistani capital.

The US has demanded an investigation as to how the al-Qaida chief could have lived for years in a garrison city less than a kilometer from a top military academy and only 56 km from Islamabad.

Pakistan on Monday dismissed as "absurd" accusations that complicity or incompetence had allowed bin Laden to hide out in the country for years and vowed a full investigation.

Addressing parliament in his first comments since bin Laden was killed by US special forces a week ago, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the official inquiry would be led by a top Pakistani general.

"We are determined to get to the bottom of how, when and why about bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad," he said. "Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd. We emphatically reject such accusations."

Gilani also criticized the US raid and insisted the country reserves the right to "retaliate with full force".

However, he stopped short of spelling out what, if anything, would be done should the US stage another high-profile raid and stood by Pakistan's "strategic" partnership with Washington.

The White House refused to apologize for the raid which the Islamabad described as "unilateralism".

The New York Times reported that US President Barack Obama ordered that the team sent to raid bin Laden's compound be large enough to fight off Pakistani forces should they intervene.

Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said Obama raised the prospect of a clash 10 days before the May 1 raid, resulting in an extra two fighter helicopters being sent to protect the commandos raiding the compound.

"Some people may have assumed we could talk our way out of a jam, but given our difficult relationship with Pakistan right now, the president did not want to leave anything to chance," the newspaper quoted a senior official as saying.

"He wanted extra forces if they were necessary."

AFP-Reuters-New York Times

(China Daily 05/11/2011 page12)