Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has assured Secretary of State Colin Powell his government is doing all it can to find kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Mr. Powell raised the issue Monday in a telephone call to General Musharraf.

The spokesman said the United States appreciates the strong cooperation of Pakistani officials and demanded Mr. Pearl's immediate and unconditional release. He also repeated earlier denials that Mr. Pearl works for the Central Intelligence Agency.

In a rare public statement on its employees, the CIA said Monday Mr. Pearl has never worked for the agency.

Man identified as Daniel Pearl with gun pointed at his head

In an e-mail to The Wall Street Journal, a group calling itself the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty claimed it kidnapped Mr. Pearl, who disappeared in Karachi last Wednesday.

The message says Mr. Pearl is a CIA spy posing as a reporter. It came with a photograph of him with a gun pointed at his head.

The group is demanding better conditions for Taleban and al-Qaida fighters it says are being mistreated in captivity at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It says it is holding Mr. Pearl in what it calls the same "very inhuman" conditions, and will only improve them when detainees in Guantanamo are treated better.

Also Monday, the State Department issued a travel warning to all U.S. citizens living in or visiting Pakistan. It also recommends they postpone traveling to the tribal areas of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province.

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

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