The director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was due in Malaysia today as part of a tour of Asia-Pacific countries, the US embassy announced.

Robert S Mueller would arrive in Kuala Lumpur from Australia, the first country on a trip which could also take him to Indonesia and the Philippines for talks on the "war against terrorism", sources said.

He will meet with senior government officials here "to discuss law enforcement issues of mutual interest" before leaving tomorrow, the brief embassy statement said.

Future cooperation

Mueller was not launching any new initiative, but would thank the Malaysians for their help so far in the war on terror and discuss a range of issues involving future cooperation, an informed source told AFP .

Foreign news reports last month said a secret FBI report accused Malaysia of being a "primary operational launchpad" for the Sept 11 attacks.

The charge has been dismissed as exaggerated by Western intelligence sources here, and the US embassy regularly praises Malaysia for its cooperation in the war on terror.

One of the men in detention here is Yazid Sufaat, who is alleged to have hosted and financed French national Zacarias Moussaoui, who faces trial in the US in connection with the attacks.

Yazid, a former army officer, also reportedly met in January 2000 with two of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks in the US a year-and-a-half later.

No al-Qaeda cells

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told parliament yesterday that police investigations showed there were no al-Qaeda cells operating in Malaysia.

Abdullah said, however, it had been established that several al-Qaeda members had entered Malaysia at one time or another before the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

The attacks have been blamed on al-Qaeda, headed by Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden.

The al-Qaeda members visited probably to establish links with certain individuals, Abdullah said.

"The government nevertheless acted firmly in identifying their aims and foiling their attempts by detaining several members of the second wing of the KMM (Malaysian Militant Group)," he said.

Malaysia says the KMM is a group of local militants trained in Afghanistan to overthrow the government by force.

Abdullah said that between December 9 last year and Jan 24, more than 30 people involved in the KMM had been detained. They are held without trial under the Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention.