A US salvage diver is planning to search the Arabian Sea to find the body of Osama bin Laden.

Bill Warren, 59, says he wants to find the corpse of the al-Qaeda leader and obtain photographic evidence that he was killed.

"I'm doing it because I am a patriotic American who wants to know the truth," he told The New York Post. "I do it for the world."

Mr Warren, who runs a California-based salvage company plans to head to the region next month, where he will rent a ship in India for about £60,000 a day, and about £6,000 for a remote-operated submarine. His whole venture will reportedly cost about £245,000.

He said his search will begin in the shallow waters off Pakistan, but will move to a deep water search if that proves unsuccessful. He admitted that the search was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Bin Laden was killed by a US Navy Seal team during a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May, and his body was buried at sea. Barack Obama said that he had seen pictures of his body, but decided not to release them to the public. Some members of the US Congress have seen them.

"The Obama administration should have released the photo, like we did with Billy the Kid, or [John] Dillinger, or even Saddam Hussein," Mr Warren said.