While American enforcement officials are expected to query terrorist suspect Yazid Sufaat over his alleged links with an al-Qaeda suspect detained in the US, his wife is confident that he will come out of the interrogation just fine.

Sejahratul Dursina @ Chomel Mohamad said she was "not too worried" about the upcoming Monday interview because her husband was barely acquainted with Zacarias Moussaoui, a French national who is currently in detention in the US on terrorism-related charges.

"I am not too worried because (Yazid) doesn't know Zacarias Moussaoui that well. Yazid knows (Zacarias) as a businessman. That's all," she said when contacted today in Kuala Lumpur.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers are expected to arrive in here today to interrogate Yazid over his alleged links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Yazid has been held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) since December last year on charges that he is a member of the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), a 'militant' organisation which is said to have plotted to overthrow the government.

He was found to have hosted Zacarias during a visit to Malaysia a year before the Sept 11 attacks and provided him with a letter of appointment as a US marketing agent for Infocus Tech, a Malaysian computer software company.

Malaysia has no objections

Meanwhile, Yazid's lawyer Saiful Izham Ramli confirmed that the meeting with FBI officers will take place on Monday but said he had few other details of the arrangements.

"I was informed a few days ago that Yazid wants my presence during the meeting. I don't know who is coming to interview him, or how many of them will be arriving for the purpose," he said after visiting Yazid at the Kamunting Detention Centre in Perak this afternoon.

Yazid is also said to be willing to cooperate with the US investigators.

Earlier, a Bukit Aman spokesperson declined to comment on details for the interview saying that the arrangements could be undertaken by prison officials instead.

"We are not certain whether the FBI officers are supposed to interrogate Yazid Sufaat today or on Monday. The Inspector-General of Police [Norian Mai] may have more information," said Bukit Aman press relations officer Shamsuddin Ali.

He added, however, that when the request for the interview came in September, Malaysian police had made no objections but stipulated that local officers must be present during the interrogation.

US embassy officials also declined to comment on the arrangements for the interview.

Wife arrested too

In addition to his association with Zacarias, several other links had been drawn linking Yazid with al-Qaeda's operations.

Yazid's posh condominium in Kajang, Selangor was allegedly used in early 2000 by two hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who were on the plane which crashed into the Pentagon.

Yazid also admitted to having acquired four tons of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural chemical that can be used to make explosives. The stockpile has never been found, but is believed to have reached Indonesia.

His wife Sejahratul was also detained under the ISA for two months early this year but was released in June on condition that her movements will be closely monitored for two years.

The request to interview Yazid came after the FBI failed to garner much information from Zacarias, beyond his admission that he is a member of al-Qaeda.

Although initially thought to be the "20th hijacker" who was prevented from carrying out his mission because he was already under arrest in the US, several reports recently suggested that he might instead have been planning another attack.