Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today said the government was investigating an alleged Malaysian connection in the massive car bomb attack near the Australian embassy in Jakarta last week.

"We are investigating and always keeping in touch with our foreign counterparts," he told a press conference in the Parliament lobby today.

Najib, who is also defence minister, said the Malaysian government has been working closely with the Indonesian government in combating terrorism. He expressed "regrets" if any Malaysian was involved in the bomb attack which claimed nine lives and injured 180.

"We also want to arrest certain individuals, if they have escaped from Malaysia and are (hiding) in other countries. I hope the countries concerned will take action against them," he said.

Najib explained that the "certain individuals" he was referring to are terrorists and members of the regional terror network, the Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

Indonesian police had earlier said elusive Malaysian bomb expert, Dr Azahari Husin, was believed to be the prime suspect for setting off the massive bomb.

Azahari, a former professor at a Malaysian university, has been identified as one of the masterminds of the JI and has also been blamed for earlier bomb attacks in Indonesia.

Together with Malaysian compatriot Noordin Mohammad Top, he is suspected of making the bombs used in the October 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people died and in the August 2003 attack on the JW Marriot hotel, also in Jakarta, in which 12 perished.

Property purchase queried

On Saturday, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had urged other countries not to associate Malaysia with the car-bombing incident in Jakarta.

"I do not know whether it is true that the bombing was done by Malaysians but it is merely the foreign media's allegations," he was quoted as saying.

"We know that Azahari has left the country so we are unable to take any action against him. Both suspects have nothing to do with us any more."

Najib further said he was unaware of a front page report in Utusan Malaysia yesterday that claimed that the state-owned Tabung Haji institution had purchased two buildings at RM168.46 million higher than their property value.

The deputy premier said he would have to "find the facts first" before commenting.

The Malay-language daily said that Tabung Haji had purchased the buildings - both in Kuala Lumpur - for M436.38 million, when these were valued at RM267.92 million.

The headquarters of the National Service Training Department is currently located in one of the buildings.

Recce team

In another development, the government will send a five-day recce team to Jordan from Sept 25 to monitor the situation in Iraq.

Foreign Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Zainal Abidin Osman told the Dewan Rakyat during the question session that the team would ascertain if the government could implement its decision to send Malaysian medical volunteers to Iraq.

He said the team would be stationed in neighbouring Jordan to monitor the security situation in Iraq, in addition to making attempts to meet with Iraqi officials to obtain news of the latest developments.

He said the team would submit a comprehensive report on its trip including a proposed plan of action for the Malaysian medical volunteers.

Zainal said the team members will comprise officials from his ministry, the defence ministry, the prime minister's department and Mercy Malaysia, a non-governmental organisation involved in medical relief work.