A leading US counter-terrorism official warned that extremist groups were splintering into smaller clusters, making it more difficult to fight rising militancy.

The US Coordinator for Counter-terrorism at the US Department of State, Henry Crumpton, said the fracturing of extremist groups were making it difficult to formulate anti-terror policies.

"The issue is more complex when you look at the nature of al-Qaeda and other organisations, how they are evolving. In some ways it is more difficult because some of these organisations are splintering and becoming smaller," he was quoted as saying yesterday by the official Bernama news agency.

"And it makes it more difficult in terms of intelligence collection and more difficult in terms of policy making, how we forge a comprehensive strategy," he said.

Terror tactics 'franchised'

Crumpton, who was on a one-day visit to Malaysia, said terror tactics could be franchised by groups and warned of growing interest in nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, Bernama said.

"The enemy is getting smaller and you see weapons becoming more powerful and this is a pretty dangerous combination," Crumpton said.

Crumpton also urged close cooperation among states to tackle growing terror threats.

The official earlier met Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar to discuss regional issues, including security in the Strait of Malacca and the conflict in southern Thailand.