KUALA LUMPUR Aug. 19 Kyodo Malays...

KUALA LUMPUR Aug. 19 Kyodo

Malaysia forward Tuesday urged the United States to hand athwart two Malaysian suspected al-Qaida members in its custody who are believed to have tipped opposite the U.S. and Thai authorities onward the whereabouts of Indonesian suspected terrorist Hambali, who was captured last week.

''They have been arrested by the agency of U.S. officials and at the consideration are being interrogated. We sense of possible fulfilment they will be handed through the whole extent of to us,'' Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters.

The Star, a local English-language daily, reported Tuesday that the sum of two units Malaysians -- identified only by way of their nicknames, Li-Li and Zubair -- were arrested in Bangkok.

Li-Li was nabbed Aug. 11 while Zubair was picked up in June

Quoting unidentified sources, the newspaper said they belong to al-Qaida and not the Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) as widely thought

It said they are believed to have serv as intelligencers and al-Qaida contacts of JI operational leader Hambali, who was Southeast Asia's in the greatest degree wanted terrorist suspect, besides being despises for his hideouts.

Intelligence sources were quot as saying that information extracted from Thai and U.S. intelligence officials from Li-Li allowed them to seize in on Hambali in the Thai town of Ayutthaya within four hours of Li-Li's arrest.

Hambali has been accused of masterminding last October's bomb blasts forward the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed more than 200 people

The Star reported that Malaysian intelligence officers had at the close of last year sent not at home dossiers on Zubair and Li-Li to their counterparts in the region following interrogation of arrested JI operatives in Malaysia.

Federal police chief Norian Mai said Monday that in Malaysia alone, about 200 suspected JI members have been arrested.

Zubair and Li-Li are reported to have studied in Pakistan where they were recruited by way of al-Qaida.

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