Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today denied claims that Malaysia serves as a terrorism hub for the region.

"We are not a terrorist hub but we do have terrorists in Malaysia, and we have had experiences (of terrorism) for the past 42 years fighting the communists," said the premier after officiating Gerakan's 30th national conference at the party headquarters in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.

"Now we have groups like Al-Ma'unah and the Malaysian Mujahidin Group (KMM)," he added.

"But we have the ISA and we have used it."

The prime minister told reporters that the government 's use of the ISA - which allows detention without trial - has been heavily criticised by human rights groups and also by the West.

"People have said that we have been undemocratic and unjust in using the Act but now they are doing the same we are doing," he said in an apparent reference to the law enforcement agencies in the US.

The US authorities have imposed stricter security measures in the wake of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which claimed thousands of lives.

"They (the US) are now learning from us, and in a way we have become the hub for learning how to deal with terrorism," Mahathir quipped.

Last month, police arrested 10 people, mostly PAS members, who were allegedly responsible for a spate of bank robberies, the bombing of a church and a temple, and the assassination of a Barisan Nasional state assemblyman.

According an AFP report, nine of them, alleged to be members of the Malaysian Mujahidin Group (KMM), were sent to the Kamunting Detention Centre in Perak last Tuesday, while one was placed under the Restricted Residence Act and confined to the state of Johor.

However, Deputy Home Minister Zainal Abidin Zin told Berita Harian today that only one individual, Nik Adli Nik Aziz - son of Kelantan Mentri Besar and PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz - had been sent to Kamunting.

No information

Asked to respond to a statement made by Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail urging the government to 'come clean' on the meeting of two alleged terrorists in Malaysia, the premier said, "She herself should come clean on terrorism, she is not very 'clean' herself."

In conducting its probe into alleged international terrorist Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that it had a videotape showing a meeting of two alleged terrorists in Kuala Lumpur last October.

Khalid Al-Midhar, one the suspected hijackers involved in crashing a hijacked passenger plane into the Pentagon, was seen on a surveillance tape meeting with a man whom American officials suspect played a hand in last year's attack on the USS Cole warship in the Yemeni port of Aden.

Mahathir said the government has no information on the two individuals and the US had not offered additional details.

"If they are known terrorists, we will blacklist them. They can still come in as travellers but if they do anything wrong, we would arrest them."

Asked to comment on the involvement of Osama's brother Omar in the construction of a tunnel at the KL International Airport, Mahathir said that it was unfair to equate his family members with terrorism.

"Just because one member of the family is a terrorist, does not mean they are all terrorists. It is like how some Muslims have initiated militant actions but that does not mean all Muslims are terrorists, " Mahathir said.

The premier added that Omar could still come in and out of the country as he had not committed any crimes.

Family business

The latest issue of The Economist magazine (Sept 22-28) said Malaysia had given major contracts to Osama's family business, the bin Laden group.

The London-published magazine said that the bin Laden group, the biggest construction company in Saudi Arabia, was involved in constructing "airport facilities in Kuala Lumpur".

The group, set up by Osama's father Mohammed Oud Laden, has a turnover of tens of billions of dollars, said the magazine.

The magazine added that Osama became estranged with his family, but not before inheriting approximately US$300 million.

However, when Osama's citizenship was revoked by the Saudi government in 1994, it froze his bank accounts and his shares of the bin Laden fortune was confiscated.

"Some of the money lost then has, however, been replenished .... by receiving secret donations from rich well-wishers in the Middle East and from Islamic charitable organisations," added The Economist in an article titled 'The spider in the web'.

Osama has been living in Afghanistan since 1996 as an honoured guest of the Taliban regime.