Pakistan faced embarrassing questions from the United States over how Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was able to hide there in plain view before he was killed by a secret US assault team.

The revelation that Bin Laden had been holed up in a compound near Islamabad threatened to exacerbate US tensions with nuclear-armed Pakistan, which had not been told of the raid in advance.

The body of the world's most powerful symbol of Islamist militancy was buried at sea after he was shot in the head and chest by US special forces who were dropped inside his luxury compound by Blackhawk helicopters.

Irate US lawmakers wondered how it was possible for Bin Laden to live in a populated area without anyone of authority knowing about it or sanctioning his presence, possibly for years. They said it was time to review the billions in aid the United States provides Pakistan.

"I think we need to talk about that. Our government is in fiscal distress. To make contributions to a country that isn't going to be fully supportive is a problem for many," said Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein.

The White House acknowledged there was good reason for US lawmakers, already doubtful of Pakistan's cooperation against Al Qaeda, to demand to know whether Bin Laden had been "hiding in plain sight" and to raise questions about continued US aid to Islamabad.

Bin Laden's hideaway, built in 2005, was about eight times larger than other homes nearby. With its 12- to 18-foot walls topped with barbed wire, internal walls for extra privacy, and access controlled through two security gates, it looked like a strongman's compound.

White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said it was "inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in the country that allowed him to remain there for an extended period of time."    

President Barack Obama was given a standing ovation by Democratic and Republican lawmakers at a White House dinner.   

He told the group the operation was a reminder that "there is pride in what this nation stands for and what we can achieve that runs far deeper than party, far deeper than politics."    

But the euphoria that drew flag-waving crowds to "Ground Zero" of the Sept 11, 2001, attack in New York was tempered by calls for vigilance against retaliation by his followers.

Obama planned to travel to New York on Thursday to visit Ground Zero and meet families of Sept 11 victims.
   
Bin Laden, 54, was given a sea burial after Muslim funeral rites on a US aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson. His shrouded body was placed in a weighted bag and eased into the north Arabian Sea, the US military said.

The Obama administration was weighing whether to release a photo of Bin Laden's body as proof that he had been killed. There is also a video of the sea burial but it was not clear if it would be released, a US official said.

Americans clamoured for details about the secret US military mission. A small US strike team, dropped by helicopter to Bin Laden's hide-out near the Pakistani capital Islamabad under the cover of night, shot the Al Qaeda leader to death with a bullet to the head. He did not return fire.

Bin Laden's wife, originally thought killed, was only wounded. Another woman was killed in the raid, along with one of Bin Laden's sons, in the tense 40 minutes of fighting. She had not been used as a human shield as first thought.

Television pictures from inside the house showed bloodstains smeared across a floor next to a large bed. Obama and his staff followed the raid minute-by-minute via a live video feed in the White House situation room, and there was relief when the commandos, including members of the Navy's elite Seals unit, stormed the compound.

"We got him," the president said, according to Brennan, after the mission was accomplished. National Journal said US authorities used intelligence about the compound to build a replica of it and use it for trial runs in early April.

Mindful of possible suspicion in the Muslim world, a US official said DNA testing showed a "virtually 100 percent" match with the Al Qaeda leader. His DNA was matched with that of several relatives, a US official said. - Reuters