(AFP) - The military will 'revolutionise' its defence mechanism and beef up intelligence gathering to deal with urban terrorism after last month's attacks on the US, the country's armed forces chief said today.

Defence Forces Chief General Mohamed Zahidi Zainuddin said the US disaster had warranted a reappraisal of the capability of Malaysia's elite troops in dealing with a similar situation.

He said the military previously only had to deal with the threats of "home-grown militancy and terrorism," such as last year's weapons heist by members of the Muslim cult Al-Maunah.

Urban militants

But the terrorists' ability to use public facilities such as commercial aircraft and the Internet to strike showed that military might alone could not contain terrorism, he said.

"The US incidents prompted us to revolutionise military affairs... we are now facing future threats from urbanised militants," Zahidi was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

Members of Al-Maunah, which Zaidi described as "jungle-fringe militants", sparked a major security scare when they stole more than 100 weapons from two armouries in July last year.

They surrendered after a five-day crisis but not before murdering two hostages.