By Zahid Hussain, Associated Press, 02/01/02

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Conflicting reports emerged Friday about the fate of reporter Daniel Pearl, with Pakistani police saying U.S. officials had received a ransom demand and a new e-mail claiming he had been killed.

A caller contacted the U.S. Consulate in Karachi and demanded $2 million and the release of the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, senior police officials said.

A Justice Department official subsequently said the telephone call may have been a hoax.

"We haven't reached any conclusions officially, but it looks like the call may have been a hoax," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

However, CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson said it received an e-mail claiming the Wall Street Journal correspondent had been killed. CNN said the e-mail added that the unidentified group was "thirsty for the blood of another American." Fox News said it also received the e-mail.

Dow Jones, which owns the Journal, said in a statement, "We've seen the latest reports, and we remain hopeful they are not true."

A for the e-mail, the Justice Department official said the department still has reached no conclusions about veracity of claims that Pearl had been killed.

The department and other U.S. government agencies confirmed receiving a copy of the e-mail from the news media. Experts were studying it, but U.S. officials said they had no independent information on Pearl's status.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement saying it was aware of the report about Pearl and hoped it would prove false, adding: "Our thoughts are with his family, his colleagues, and his many friends around the world."

Residents of Karachi, a city of 12 million, said police vans were moving throughout the city late Friday and uniformed officers were seen checking vacant lots and graveyards.

The Pakistani police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the anonymous caller gave the Americans 36 hours to meet the demand for money and the freeing of the envoy, Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, who was arrested in Pakistan and turned over to U.S. authorities.

A U.S. State Department official in Washington said a telephone call was received by the US Embassy in Islamabad. The official declined to discuss the substance of the call.

Police insisted the call went to the U.S. Consulate, and there was no immediate explanation for the conflict.

The Pakistani officials said police believe the call may be genuine. A demand for Zaaef's release also was made in an e-mail sent Sunday by those claiming to hold Pearl.

Officials at the consulate in Karachi were not available. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad refused to confirm or deny the report about the caller.

President Bush vowed earlier Friday to pursue any clue that could lead to the rescue of the Wall Street Journal reporter. He spoke a day after a deadline for killing the journalist was extended.

"We are working with the Pakistan government to chase down any leads possible -- for example, trying to follow the trail of the e-mails that have been sent, with the sole purpose of saving this man, of finding him and rescuing" him, Bush said during a White House appearance with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

It was impossible to determine whether an unsigned e-mail, received by Western and Pakistani media on Thursday, was sent by the kidnappers. The 38-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter was abducted Jan. 23 in Karachi while working to secure an interview with the founder of an obscure militant Muslim sect.

"We will give you one more day. If America will not meet our demands, we will kill Daniel. Then this cycle will continue and no American journalist could enter Pakistan," the message said.

It warned that unless the demands are met, "the Amrikans (Americans) will get what they deserve. Don't think this is will be the end. It is the beginning and it is a real war on Amrikans."

"Amrikans will get the taste of death and destructions what we had got" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the e-mail said.

The first e-mail, sent over the weekend, demanded Pakistanis captured in fighting in Afghanistan and now held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be returned for trial. It said Pearl would be held in the same "inhuman" conditions as the Guantanamo prisoners.

Speaking Thursday in Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell ruled out bending to the group's demands that prisoners from the Afghan campaign be returned.

"The demands that the kidnappers have placed are not demands that we can either deal with or get into a negotiation about," he said.

An unsigned e-mail Wednesday accused Pearl of working for the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, and set a 24-hour deadline for killing him. It also demanded all American journalists leave Pakistan within three days or become targets.

Thursday's message gave no reason for the extension.

A source close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday's e-mail was sent through the same server as the one received Wednesday. Thursday's message did not include photographs of Pearl, as e-mails Wednesday and Sunday did.

Police claim they are pursuing several leads, but have refused to give details. On Thursday, a source close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a key suspect named Arif was reported dead in southern Punjab province.

The source said police went to Arif's home but were told by his family that he had died recently in Afghanistan. Arif was believed to have been one of Pearl's contacts, the source said.

A police report, obtained by The Associated Press, identified Arif as a member of Harkat ul-Mujahedeen, an Islamic extremist group with close ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

The report said Arif introduced Pearl to Chadrey Bashir Ahmad Shabbbir, a follower of Muslim cleric, Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, whom Pearl was hoping to interview for a story on Islamic militants when he disappeared.

Police have been unable to find Shabbir. Pakistani police arrested Gilani on Wednesday.

Pearl's wife, Marianne, is six months pregnant with their first child.

The first e-mail purporting to be from Pearl's kidnappers, sent Sunday, was signed by the heretofore unknown National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty. The message included pictures of Pearl with a pistol pointed to his head.

The Wall Street Journal has sent repeated return e-mails denying Pearl is an agent of any government and appealing for his life.

Pakistani authorities have said Pearl was most likely being held by a radical Muslim faction -- Harkat ul-Mujahedeen -- linked to al-Qaida.