JEDDAH, 11 December — The suspected terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda would not be crippled by the capture or killing of Osama Bin Laden, Interior Minister Prince Naif was quoted as saying yesterday.

“He’s at the top of the pyramid (of Al-Qaeda) from the media point of view, but from my personal views and conviction, I don’t think he’s at the top of the pyramid,” Prince Naif told the New York Times in an interview.

Asked what would happen if US or Afghan forces captured or killed Bin Laden, the prince said: “I don’t think that would be the end of Al-Qaeda.”

He did not say who he thought was the head the militant organization that Washington accuses of carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Prince Naif is the first Saudi official to cast doubt publicly on Bin Laden’s leadership of Al-Qaeda.

Saudi Arabia stripped Bin Laden of his citizenship in 1994.

US and Afghan forces are scouring the mountains of Afghanistan for Bin Laden and his followers to punish them for the September attacks.

Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has told another US newspaper that the Kingdom is prepared to take custody of any Saudi captured in Afghanistan and has vowed to punish those found to have been criminally involved there.

Prince Naif said that even if the world’s most wanted man had been apprehended years ago, the devastating hijacked-jet attacks might still have taken place.

“I think it would have happened without him,” the prince said. “We’re not saying that Bin Laden is innocent, but still it would have happened. An arrest would not have prevented it.”

He did not elaborate. He said Saudi Arabia had yet to receive proof of involvement of Saudis in the attacks after US officials named Saudi citizens among the list of 19 hijackers.

If Saudis were involved, Prince Naif said, they could only have been acting as the instruments of non-Saudis who would have played a leading role in the operation. “Until now, we have no evidence that assures us that they are related to Sept. 11,” Prince Naif told the Times .

Even if a connection were made, the people named did not have the capability to act in such a professional way. “There would have had to be someone behind them,” he said.