Pakistani police dug up a grave on Friday revealing a torso and severed head but said they were still unsure if the body was that of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Information Minister Nisar Memon cast doubt on initial reports that the body was Pearl's, saying he believed this was not the case. (Read photo caption)

The remains were found in a nursery garden next to a small building where Pearl had apparently been held hostage on the outskirts of the southern port city of Karachi.

The police chief of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, said the body was so decomposed "it cannot be identified."

"We are relying on DNA tests, which may take a couple of days or weeks," police Inspector-General Kamal Shah told a news conference.

A senior police official earlier told Reuters nine pieces of the body and hair were found "strengthening our belief that the body belonged to Daniel Pearl."

But Shah later said 10 pieces of the body were uncovered but no weapon that could have been used for murder was found in the compound.

Officials said samples had been taken away for DNA testing.

British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other men are on trial for their lives on charges of kidnapping and murdering Pearl. All four have pleaded not guilty.

PHOTO CAPTION

Pakistani police surround a walled nursery in Gaddap, about 20 miles from Karachi May 17, 2002 where they dug up a grave revealing a torso and separated head believed to belong to murdered U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl. The makeshift grave in a nursery garden was next to a one-room building where the Wall Street Journal reporter apparently had been held hostage on the outskirts of Karachi. (Zahid Hussein/Reuters)