Anti-terror police are still actively hunting for fugitive Malaysian terror mastermind Noordin Mohammad Top and his followers, Indonesia's police chief said.

"We are still tracking them down. They are surely continuously trying to avoid us. In the field, our men are still conducting investigations," General Sutanto told reporters after meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday.

Sutanto was speaking a day after intelligence documents were reported to suggest that Noordin was actively recruiting prospective suicide bombers and maintaining close contact with jailed Islamic militants.

The chief said Noordin and his followers remained hard to catch because they were "highly mobile and because they have a small team, they can easily elude" arrest.

Noordin is accused of masterminding a string of attacks in Indonesia since 2000 which have left hundreds dead.

The intelligence documents, carried in a Koran Tempo newspaper report on Tuesday, said Noordin had formed a new division within the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional extremist network.

"Even though his scope for action is limited, the Intelligence Agency is convinced that Noordin's network is continuing to form istimata brigades (suicide bomb squads)," the newspaper said.

District level

It said the Malaysian, believed to be in hiding on the main Indonesian island of Java, had set up a new command within JI called ma'sul to operate at district level. The group's existing command structure operated at regional and provincial levels.

"Each ma'sul is in contact with Jemaah Islamiyah leaders, including those who are in jail," the daily cited the documents as saying, adding that ma'sul was also tasked with setting up suicide squads.

Police earlier this month said Noordin had set up a new group called Tandzim Qoedatul Jihad six months before a triple suicide bombing last October on the resort island of Bali, which killed 20 people as well as the bombers.

Noordin's compatriot and partner-in-crime Azahari Husin, a master bombmaker, was killed by police during a raid on his hideout in East Java last November.

Noordin narrowly escaped arrest earlier the same day.

The pair were believed to be originally key operators in JI.