Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, is living in the lap of luxury in an apartment in Iran and spends his time falconing, according to a new documentary.

Far from huddling in a cave in Afghanistan fearing for his life, the al-Qaeda leader has been enjoying the protection of Iran's Revolutionary Guard with his wife and children since 2003, the film Feathered Cocaine asserts.

The documentary features Alan Parrot, one of the world's foremost falconers, who claims that bin Laden, an avid falcon hunter, has been taking part in the sport relatively freely in Teheran, Fox News reports.

Mr Parrot, who was once the chief falconer for the Shah of Iran and who has worked for the royal families of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, used his contacts in Iran to talk about bin Laden's life there.

He took two Icelandic filmmakers, Om Marino Arnarson and Thorkell S. Hardarson, into the secretive world of falconers where some birds can sell for over $1 million, and in which the elite of the Middle East conduct business and politics in remote desert camps.

One contact, said to be a warlord from the country's north, claims to have met bin Laden on hunting trips six times since 2003.

He said that the terrorist leader was calm, healthy and so comfortable that "he travels with only four bodyguards."

Mr Parrot told Fox News that the warlord, who supplies the falcon camps bin Laden visits on hunting forays, agreed to talk only because one of Mr Parrot's men had saved his life.

"This was the repayment," Mr Parrot said. "He was asked to talk. He wasn't happy about it."

The last confirmed meeting between bin Laden and the warlord was in 2008, Mr Parrot said.

"There may have been more since then, but I haven't talked to my source since we left Iran," he said.

Parrot's story is supported in the documentary by former CIA agent Robert Baer, an outspoken critic of US policy in the Middle East on whom the film Syriana is based