WASHINGTON – Straying from the Bush administration script, Afghanistan’s president said Sunday the hunt for Osama bin Laden has gone nowhere despite aggressive U.S. efforts to capture the Sept. 11 mastermind.

“We are not closer, we are not further away … we are where we were a few years ago,” Hamid Karzai told CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Asked about Karzai’s downbeat assessment, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told CNN, “We’re working the problem. … We are dedicating significant resources to trying to find him.”

The Afghan leader, who was in Washington on Sunday to meet with President Bush, said he didn’t know where bin Laden was but was certain he wasn’t in Afghanistan.

American and Pakistani officials have long said the terrorist is hiding in tribal areas of Pakistan.

To the chagrin of Bush officials, he has evaded an intense manhunt by U.S. Special Forces and the Pakistani Army.

Although bin Laden’s death or capture wouldn’t eliminate the global terror threat, the symbolism of his demise would be an enormous boost to the Bush administration.

“Getting him is the one thing that would give this presidency any positive momentum at the end,” a senior Bush adviser recently admitted.