US investigators, who have been sifting through a huge stash of material seized on May 2 after US special forces killed bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout, want to question his wives as they seek to trace his movements and his network.

A Pakistani decision to allow US investigators to question the women could begin to stabilize relations between the allies that have been severely strained by the killing of the al Qaeda leader.

A US official said in Washington on Monday that Pakistan appeared ready to grant access to the wives who were detained by Pakistani authorities at bin Laden's compound after the raid.

But Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said it had received no US request while other officials said no decision had been taken.

Pakistan says the wives, one from Yemen and two from Saudi Arabia, and their children, will be repatriated. Pakistan was making contacts with their countries but they had yet to say they would take them, the Pakistani official said.

Bin Laden was shot dead in a top-secret raid in the northern Pakistani town of Abbottabad to the embarrassment of Pakistan which has for years denied the world's most wanted man was on its soil.