Malaysia has extended the detention without trial of two Islamic militant suspects accused of having links to the Al-Qaeda terror network, their lawyer said Thursday.

"The detention orders for Abdul Samad Shukri Mohamad and Ahmad Yani Ismail have been renewed for another two years," counsel Edmund Bon (left) told AFP .

The fate of several other detainees whose detention orders also expired on Feb 22 was not immediately known.

The pair were arrested under the harsh Internal Security Act (ISA) in 2002 and accused of being involved with the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant network.

"No reasons were given for the extension of the two orders," said rights activist Chang Lih Kang. He said it was "most likely" that the other detainees would also have had their detentions extended.

Meeting in apartment

Last month the government renewed the detention orders for former army officer Yazid Sufaat (right).

Yazid allegedly allowed his apartment to be used in early 2000 for a meeting of Al-Qaeda operatives, including two hijackers who were aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Malaysia is a mainly-Muslim country that has been sharply critical of the US-led invasion of Iraq but has at the same time detained more than 80 alleged Islamic militants.