An investigator hunting for a suspected Nazi war criminal known as "Dr Death" has said that Aribert Heim is still alive and living in southern Argentina or Chile.

Efraim Zuroff said on Friday that the success of the investigation lies with Waltraud Diharce, Heim's daughter, who lives in the Chilean town of Puerto Montt.

"There is no evidence that he is dead, but, to the contrary,  there are numerous leads that he could be alive in this region," Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which has sought alleged Nazi fugitives since 1945, said.

Manhunt

He also said that Heim had travelled from Puerto Montt to the resort town of San Carlos de Bariloche in southwestern Argentina "50 times in one year".

The two towns are 350km apart and are separated by the Andes mountain range.

Zuroff believes that Heim is hiding somewhere between the two towns.

Heim's children have never claimed a bank account believed to contain $1.6 million and other investments in his name. To do that, they would have to produce proof that he is dead.

Heim, an Austrian national who would now be 94, is wanted for allegedly killing hundreds of people in concentration camps during the second world war.

Most of the victims died during medical experiments, including performing operations without anesthesia and injecting petrol directly into their hearts.