Malaysia played a role in the capture of top terror suspect Hambali in Thailand this week, police chief Norian Mai was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency today.

Norian attributed the arrest of the leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist organisation to exchanges of intelligence between Malaysia "and neighbouring countries."

He declined to elaborate, Bernama reported.

"Intelligence agencies from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore are now working together to ensure security," he said.

Thailand's Defence Minister Thamarak Issarangkun Na Ayutthaya said Hambali and his wife were arrested on Monday and extradited to Indonesia on Wednesday in an operation conducted "with the cooperation of many countries."

Norian said police would try to seek information from Hambali's wife, who is a Malaysian, about her husband's actitives.

Hambali, born Riduan Isamuddin in Indonesia in 1966, arrived in Malaysia in 1985 before leaving to fight in the anti-Soviet campaign in Afghanistan from 1987 until 1991.

When he returned he married a local Chinese girl and settled in the quiet village of Sungai Manggis about an hour's drive from the capital Kuala Lumpur.

There, inspired by what he had learned from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, he allegedly built JI into a terror network with fellow villager and Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.

Bashir is on trial in Jakarta for plotting to overthrow the government and to set up an Islamic state, while Hambali has been on the run for years.

Hambali is wanted in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines in connection with a series of bomb attacks as well as in his homeland of Indonesia for attacks including the Bali bombings in October last year and last week's attack on a Marriott hotel in Jakarta. - AFP