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here are growing indications that Pakistan's most wanted man, Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, has been killed by a US missile.
He is said to have died when a drone targeted the home of a relative.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that information was "pouring in" that he was dead but there was no conclusive evidence.
Taliban leaders have gathered in South Waziristan to choose a successor, local sources have told the BBC.
Three names are under consideration and it is possible the Taliban are waiting to choose their new leader before announcing Baitullah Mehsud's death, says Abdul Hai Kakar, a BBC reporter based in Peshawar.
People living close to the scene of the missile attack in South Waziristan told the BBC that he had been killed along with his wife on Wednesday.
However, the remoteness of the location is contributing to the delay in establishing the facts, the BBC's Orla Guerin reports from Islamabad.
A US official said there was "reason to believe reports of his death may be true but it cannot be confirmed".
Pakistan's information minister stressed that although the information coming in suggested he had been killed, there was no tangible proof.
Even if DNA could be recovered at the scene, he added, the authorities did not have a sample from a male relative to compare it with.
Previous reports of Baitullah Mehsud's death have proved to be unfounded.
South Waziristan is a stronghold of the Taliban chief, who has been blamed by Pakistan for a series of suicide bomb attacks in the country.
'Hit on the roof'
The missile fired by the US drone hit the home of the Taliban chief's father-in-law, Malik Ikramuddin, in the Zangarha area, 15km (9 miles) north-east of Ladha, at around 0100 on Wednesday (1900 GMT Tuesday).
At the time of the attack, the Taliban leader was said to be on the roof, suffering from an illness for which he was taking medication, local people told our Peshawar reporter.
Some people who said they saw his body said that it had been half-destroyed by the blast.
Baitullah Mehsud was buried in the nearby village of Nardusai, the witnesses told our reporter.
Several of Baitullah Mehsud's relatives were also injured, local people told the BBC earlier.
On Friday, Mr Malik said his country's security forces believed Baitullah Mehsud was among the dead.
"We suspect he was killed in the missile strike," he said. "We have some information, but we don't have material evidence to confirm it."
ABC News was told by one US official that visual and other indicators suggested there was a 95% chance that Mehsud had been killed.
Pakistani security forces were now trying to collect physical evidence that would prove he had died, it said.
One other factor complicating verification of his death is the lack of photographs of the Taliban leader.
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