Is he a US spy, an al-Qaeda agent, a would-be American Taleb, an ambitious young journalist or just a backpacker pushing the boundaries of adventure?

These were the intriguing questions facing Pakistani police this morning after they arrested a 20-year-old American travelling through their country's militant-infested tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan.

The bearded man was wearing traditional Pakistani dress, carrying a laptop and maps of the area, and bearing an American passport that idenitified him as Jude Kenan, local police officials said.

They said the man told them he was a student from a community college in Florida and was in the area -- where Western intelligence agencies believe Osama bin Laden is hiding -- to visit a friend.

Some Pakistani media reports suggested Mr Kenan was of Afghan descent, and a few spelt his name as Juddi Kenan.

He was arrested late last night at a checkpoint as he tried to enter the Mohmand tribal area without the permission required by Pakistani law for foreigners to visit the region, according to the police.

Mohmand is part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where al-Qaeda and Taleban militants have been sheltering since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Mohmand shares a border with Afghanistan and is right next to Bajaur, another Pakistani tribal area that has seen heavy fighting between militants and Pakistani forces in the last few months.

The US Embassy in Islamabad and its consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar were trying to confirm media reports of the arrest, according to Lou Fintor, a spokesman for the US Embassy.

"We're in touch with Pakistani officials and have indicated our desire to confirm the reports," he told The Times.

He said there had been no response yet from the Pakistani authorities.

Pakistan's government often claims to have killed or arrested foreign extremists around the tribal areas, mostly from Afghanistan, the Middle East and Russia's mostly Muslim region of Chechnya.

There have also been isolated cases of US civilians getting into trouble in Pakistan and Afghanistan over their contacts with militants.

Most famous was John Walker Lindh, a US citizen who was captured in November 2001 while fighting with the Taleban. He was 20 at the time.

Nicholas Schmidle, a US academic and journalist, was deported from Pakistan last year after interviewing militants in the northwestern region of Swat.

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