He also gave a sobering account of the war in Afghanistan, saying the Taleban seemed to be strengthening with a stepped-up campaign of violence, even as US-led forces undermine the Islamist movement with attacks on its leadership.
Not since "the early 2000s" have US officials had "the last precize information about where he (Bin Laden) might be located," Panetta said on ABC's "This Week" program.
"Since then, it's been very difficult to get any intelligence on his exact location," he said. "He is, as is obvious, in very deep hiding ... He's in an area of the tribal areas of Pakistan."
Denying the world's most wanted man safe haven on the lawless Afghanistan-Pakistan border has been an aim of Western policy since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, when the Taleban in effect spurned a US demand to hand over the Al-Qaeda chief.
Taleban militants, Panetta said, "with regards to some of the directed violence, they seem to be stronger. But the fact is, we are undermining their leadership and that I think is moving in the right direction."
He said a Taleban leader who was dressed as a woman was killed over the weekend in a military operation.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst in the nine-year war, with the Taleban stepping up their campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations, particularly in their Kandahar heartland.
Some 80 foreign troops have been killed so far in June, making it the deadliest month for international forces since the war began in late 2001. More than 300 troops have been killed this year compared with about 520 for all of 2009.
