The government confirmed today that two Malaysian citizens, one of whom reportedly led security forces to the hideout of top terror suspect Hambali, were being held by the United States.

"They have been detained by the US and they are being investigated," Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told a news conference. "We hope they will be handed over to us."

The Star newspaper said today the two Malaysians were members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network and identified them as using the aliases Li-Li and Zubair.

The paper quoted unnamed intelligence sources as saying Li-Li was captured in Bangkok on Aug 11 and was responsible for exposing the whereabouts of Hambali, arrested in Thailand last week.

Hambali, an Indonesian, is reputedly the chief operational commander of the al-Qaeda-linked regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), accused of last year's bomb attack that killed 202 people in Bali and this month's bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.

The Star said Li-Li and Zubair, who was captured in Bangkok in June, were believed to have been handed over to US custody along with Hambali and taken to an undisclosed destination for interrogation.

Sensitive time

The revelation of their arrests comes at a particularly sensitive time for Malaysia, with Indonesian police on Tuesday accusing two other Malaysians as major players in the Bali and Jakarta attacks.

The men are Azahari Husin, alleged chief bomb-maker for JI, and Noordin Muhammad Top, named as overall "controller" of the hotel bombing.

Abdullah denied, however, that a Malaysian was among three men charged in the United States over an attempt to sell surface-to-air missiles for use by terrorists.

"It's not true. We have told them that he's not Malaysian. His flight (to the US) was from Malaysia," Abdullah said in reference to news reports about Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed, charged in Newark, New Jersey on Aug 13 with helping to finance the arms deal.

Hameed appeared in court with Hemant Lakhani, a Briton of Indian descent, who allegedly smuggled a Russian shoulder-held SA-18 missile into the United States and planned a further shipment of 50 such weapons.

Local media here reported that the Malaysian diplomatic office in Washington had established that Hameed was an Indian national carrying an Indian passport.

A third man, Yehuda Abraham, was to be charged separately in the deal, which was exposed in an international sting operation by the FBI, Russian federal agents and British counter-intelligence. - AFP