Indonesian police said Saturday they will send detectives to Malaysia to interrogate a terrorist suspect believed to have worked alongside fugitive Malaysian terror mastermind Noordin Mohammad Top.

Anti-terror officers from Central Java police will question a Malaysian man named Mahfud currently detained in Malaysia, said provincial police chief Dodi Sumantyawan.

Indonesian police believe Mahfud provided various assistance to Noordin while he was hiding in the Central Java capital of Semarang last year, Sumantyawan told AFP.

Noordin is a key operator of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror group and has been accused of masterminding a string of attacks in Indonesia since 2000 which have left hundreds of people dead.

He narrowly escaped an arrest last November in Semarang but his compatriot and partner-in-crime Azahari Husin, a master bombmaker, was killed by police during a separate raid on his hideout in East Java the same day.

Set up new command

Sumantyawan said the anti-terror officers and other detectives would depart for Malaysia as soon as they received a go-ahead from their Malaysian counterparts.

Leaked intelligence documents said in February that Noordin - now believed to be in hiding in 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.

Police also say that Noordin has 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.