JAKARTA - Indonesian police will question terror suspect Mohamad Iqbal A Rahman who was recently released from prison in Malaysia about his possible links to terrorism, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said today.

Mohamad Iqbal, an Indonesian with permanent residency in Malaysia, was released on Friday after his two-year detention order under that country's Internal Security Act expired. He is now awaiting deportation.

"We have an interest in finding out whether (Iqbal) has any links with terrorist attacks in Indonesia," Wirayuda told reporters.

Wirayuda also said Jakarta had not been officially notified about Iqbal's deportation . "We are ready to receive him," he said.

Iqbal, 46, was arrested in June 2001 under the security act. He is suspected of being a senior member of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror group.

Malaysia has detained more than 90 Islamic militants, many of them alleged members of JI.

Questioning Hambali too

The network is blamed for a string of bombings in the region, including the Bali blasts in October last year that killed 202 people and this month's Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta which killed 12.

Wirayuda also said he would write to US Secretary of State Colin Powell asking that Indonesian officers be given direct access to alleged terror chief Hambali, who is in US custody at an undisclosed location following his arrest in Thailand on Aug 11.

"Hopefully the letter can be sent today," he said.

Hambali is al-Qaeda's suspected point man in Asia and the alleged operations chief of JI. Indonesian police have prepared a team to question him and want Washington eventually to hand him over for trial.

Police say he was involved in 39 bombings in eight Indonesian cities between August 2000 and the Bali blasts in October 2002.

He is also wanted for questioning in Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. - AFP