The police have arrested a key Islamic terrorist suspect who was trained in Afghanistan and has links with international networks, and has also put out a three-country alert for eight other suspects, police announced today.

Police chief Norian Mai told a news conference the man was a leader of the Malaysian Militant Group (KMM), which has connections to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) organisation accused of plotting attacks on western targets in Singapore.

JI in turn is believed to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group, blamed for the Sept 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

The 42-year-old former university lecturer, Wan Min Wan Mat, was arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) early this morning in northeastern Kelantan state, Norian said, describing him as a "prime suspect".

"According to our investigation, he is the leader of KMM in Johor (state in southern Malaysia) and has received military training in southern Philippines in 1996 and in Afghanistan in 2000."