Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan has strongly denied reports that one of five suspected Islamic militants arrested in Singapore had received training in Malaysia.

Singapore late Friday said it has arrested five suspected Islamic militants under tough security laws which allow detention without trial.

Four of the five arrested between November and April are alleged members of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia among other attacks, the home ministry said.

In a statement on the ministry's website, one of the alleged JI members, Mohamed Yassin was said to have been involved in fund raising for JI and had "also undergone JI training in Malaysia."

"There is no JI movement here in Malaysia," police chief Musa Hassan was quoted saying by Malay-language daily Berita Harian on Sunday.

"The report by Singapore's home ministry is not true. I have not heard of and have never received any reports of a JI movement or Al-Qaeda in this country," he told the newspaper.

Musa could not be reached for comment.

Law-lecturer

According to the Singapore ministry, Mohamed Yassin was a member of the Singapore JI network and had left the city-state in August 2001 to pursue Arabic studies overseas.

He was arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act in February 2007, the statement added.

Among others detained was Ishak Mohamed Noohu, a senior member of JI's Singapore wing who had undergone military training in the Philippines, and law lecturer Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader, a "self-radicalised" militant who planned to pursue jihad in Afghanistan, the statement said.

All five are held under Singapore's Internal Security Act, under which more than 30 suspected militants are now being detained.

Malaysia has also arrested more than 80 alleged Islamic militants under its own internal security act for alleged involvement with the Al-Qaeda-linked JI terror network.