'Al-Qaeda network present in SE Asia'

'Al-Qaeda network present in SE Asia'

MALAYSIA: Intelligence gathered by Southeast Asian security officials has revealed the presence of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network in the region, a top Thai defense official said in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

"We have cooperated with other countries in intelligence sharing. We have some proof of that," Adm. Narong Yuthavong, supreme commander of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, told reporters in response to a question.

Narong is in Malaysia for a three-day biannual intelligence meeting with his Malaysian counterpart Gen. Mohamad Zahidi Zainduddin, chief of defense forces.

Mohamad Zahidi said that one of the top issues of the 10th high level dialog between Malaysia and Thailand was to identify ways of beating terrorism.

Of nearly 100 suspected terrorists being held in Singapore and Malaysia, most have been linked to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which is trying to establish a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia taking in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and the southern Philippines. --AFP