Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, the Obama administration may need to prove it by showing photos of the world's most infamous terrorist after he was shot in the head.

"They need to release some verifiable information that it was bin Laden," said Brian Katulis, a Middle East and South Asia scholar at the Centre for American Progress in Washington, who visited Pakistan in February.

"You won't convince everybody, but you need to marginalise the conspiracy theorists."

President Barack Obama is weighing up whether to release a photo of bin Laden's body, which US forces identified through photo comparisons, DNA, and other means.

Bin Laden's body, weighted down, was released into the Arabian Sea following an Islamic funeral ritual performed aboard a ship by US military officers, according to the administration.