French intelligence agencies attempt to flush out groups linked to bin Laden

The French intelligence agency DST and the Paris crime brigade are investigating possible links between radical Islamists in France and Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire accused of planning last week's attacks on New York and Washington.

A Frenchman of Algerian origin, Mr Zacarias Moussaoui, from Saint-Jean-de-Luz near the French-Spanish border, was arrested in Boston three weeks before the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. US officials had planned to expel him to France for travelling on a false passport, but the FBI has now decided to hold Mr Moussaoui for questioning.

Mr Moussaoui (33) was on a French intelligence look-out list. With a record for proselytising and repeated trips to Afghanistan, Britain, Germany and Italy, he fit the profile of several dozen French Muslims suspected of belonging to bin Laden's network. When Mr Moussaoui enrolled in flying lessons in Boston this summer, his instructors found his behaviour suspicious. According to LibΘration he was extremely preachy, talked about jihad and asked "surprising" questions.

They alerted the Boston police, who found the false passport.

Two Algerians suspected of supporting bin Laden are already imprisoned in France. Mohamed Bensakhria (34) was arrested in Spain in June and was extradited to Paris in July. Mr Bensakhria was in contact with four fundamentalists arrested in Germany on Christmas Day last year. They had taken video cassettes of the open air Christmas market and cathedral in Strasbourg, and the DST believes they planned to attack American targets in France and Germany.

The third, Mohamed Badache, who allegedly trained Muslim militants from France in Afghanistan, was extradited from Belgium in June.

Journalists who interviewed bin Laden in Afghanistan in the past met French-speaking members of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) among his entourage.

The GIA is the most feared group in the ongoing Algerian war, with a reputation for slashing throats and beheading their victims. In December 1994, the group hi-jacked an Air France flight at Algiers airport. The hijackers intended to crash the airliner into the Eiffel Tower, but were diverted to Marseilles, where they were killed by French commandos.

Gendarmes at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport were stunned when Bakr bin Laden, one of Osama bin Laden's 53 siblings, arrived in France shortly after the US attacks. Bakr bin Laden headed a delegation of Saudi businessmen that reserved 110 rooms at the Intercontinental Hotel.

The gendarmerie alerted French police, who after their initial excitement consulted intelligence files and decided not to question him. Another bin Laden brother, Yeslam, a Swiss citizen, sent condolences to the US ambassador in Berne.