Osama bin Laden's deputy in Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was the one who led US troops to the notorious terrorist's compound, a media report says.

The top two al-Qaeda men had differences and that the courier who led US forces to Bin Laden was working for Zawahiri, the Al-Watan newspaper, quoting an unnamed "regional source," said

The courier, Pakistan and not a Kuwaiti national as the US suspected, knew he was being followed by the US military but kept it a secret.

"The Egyptian faction of Al-Qaeda is defacto running the organisation now and since he was taken ill in 2004 they have been trying to take full control," according to the paper.

It also said Zawahiri's faction had persuaded Bin Laden to leave tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border and take shelter instead in Abbottabad near Islamabad, where he was finally killed by US commandos on Monday.

The Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri is often referred to as Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man, and al-Qaeda's chief ideologue.

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