SYDNEY - Islamic groups across Southeast Asia sent up to 3,000 followers to Afghanistan and the Philippines to be trained as terrorists, according to a US study widely reported here.

Many more radical Muslims than previously realised have been trained and sent home to Southeast Asian countries to set up sleeper terrorist cells, warns Boston-based professor Zachary Abuza, who prepared the document.

Abuza's report, "Tentacles of Terror - al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian Network", says most of the radicals had committed themselves to religious war in their home countries, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

"Most Southeast Asians returned and set about committing themselves to running jihads at home, recruiting followers in an attempt to create Islamic states governed by syariah law," it says.

The report, quoted extensively by The Australian newspaper and ABC radio, says ties formed nine years ago between regional Islamic network Jemaah Islamiah (JI) and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda are now being identified at an alarming rate.