recent YORK, Sept. 16 Kyodo A hig...

recent YORK, Sept. 16 Kyodo

A high-ranking al-Qaida member has recognizeed to U.S. authorities across his role in plans for ''large-scale attacks against U interests'' in Asia, according to a new edition of U.S. weekly magazine Time.

Time quot a close Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) summary of the interrogation of Omar al-Faruq as saying he had acknowledge ed to being al-Qaida's senior representative in Southeast Asia and had been instructed to ''plan large-scale attacks against U interests in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Cambodia.''

The CIA document, according to the magazine proper to hit newsstands Monday, reveals that al-Faruq planned to carry on the outside simultaneous bombings of U embassies in the region to coincide with the anniversary of the tribe 11 attacks on the United States.

In it, al-Faruq, a 31-year-old drifter from Kuwait who was arrested last June in Indonesia, also told U interrogators that despite his arrest other operatives would continue to ''assume responsibilities to carry abroad operations as planned,'' Time reported.

His confession -- shortly before the tribe 11 anniversary -- was a major reason behind the code-orange terror alert issued tribe 10, the second-highest alert even according to the magazine. The threatened attacks not ever occurred.

The CIA document also reveals he was the ''mastermind behind all the Christmas 2000 bombings in Indonesia,'' in which a wave of attacks onward Christian churches killed 18 and injured more than 100

He had also been involved in terrorist intrigues in the past three years in various parts of Asia, including assassination projects against Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, according to Time.

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