French police have arrested a number of people accused of belonging to extremist Islamic groups on suspicion they were planning attacks on US interests in France.
Police made seven or eight arrests early this morning after an Algerian man being held in the United Arab Emirates was alleged to have confessed to planning an attack on the US embassy in France.
The suspect then gave names and addresses of extremists living in Paris, police sources said.
At least one of the suspects had contacted the man held in Dubai, and others had been under police surveillance since his arrest in July, the sources said.
A French judicial source confirmed yesterday there were indications the Algerian had links to Osama bin Laden.
French authorities opened an investigation into whether US interests in France were under threat from attacks the day before the strikes in the US last week.