Southeast Asian governments must prepare for the possibility of regional terror group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) forging links with Chechen separatists and adopting even more aggressive tactics, an expert warned today.

The al-Qaeda-linked JI is seeking new alliances amid an intensive crackdown on its activities in the region, said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.

"Certainly, JI individual members have had linkages with Chechen groups for a period of time," he told reporters on the sidelines of a regional security conference.

"JI is a group that is now surviving on opportunity. They will work with any terrorist group who understands terrorist tactics and techniques. They will cooperate with any group that will help them survive and succeed in their aims and objective."

Gunaratna said some Chechen separatists had previously been linked to terror plots in Jordan and Australia. He urged Southeast Asian governments to develop a better understanding of their tactics.

Female suicide bombers

His comments followed a report in Monday's Star newspaper quoting intelligence sources as saying that at least three JI leaders from Indonesia had travelled to Chechnya, possibly to establish links with Chechen fighters.

The report said Indonesian radical groups linked to JI have allegedly produced material on how Chechen separatists make and use landmines and bombs, sparking fears they may adopt more aggressive tactics.

The report said the groups have produced 24 video compact discs entitled Russia's Hell on arms training, the use of landmines and women in suicide bombing - a trademark of the Chechens but something which JI has not yet practised.

Rebels in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya have waged a fierce insurgency highlighted by the North Ossetia school siege this month in which more than 330 people died.

JI is blamed for a series of blasts including the Bali bombings in 2002 in which 202 people died, and this month's car bomb outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta which killed nine.