Indonesian police announced on Friday they had arrested a suspect in the attack on the JW Marriot Hotel in Jakarta, which killed 12 people and injured nearly 150.

"Police arrested a suspect in the bombing several days ago outside Jakarta," said Lt. Gen. Erwin Mappaseng, chief of detectives.

He did not identify the man.

The arrest was the first in connection with the Aug. 5 blast, although Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, the national police chief, said on Thursday that several individuals had been picked up for questioning.

"We have detained several people and we are questioning them but there is insufficient evidence yet to prove their links with the Marriott bombing," Bachtiar said.

He refused to give the number of people detained and where they were being questioned.

The Jakarta Post newspaper, however, quoted unnamed sources at Jakarta police headquarters as saying nine people had been detained.

They included a Malaysian national named Muklis, the newspaper said, adding that most of the men were captured in Bengkulu on Sumatra Island, the home of one of the suspected bombers, whose severed head was found in the debris after the blast.

Authorities suspect that the Marriott attack was organized by the southeast Asia terror group, Jemaah Islamiyah, which is also blamed for last October blasts that killed 202 people in the resort island of Bali.

The United States and Australia have warned of more attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

On Wednesday, Bachtiar showed photos of the six men sought in both bombings, including Jemaah Islamiyah's alleged operations chief, Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali.

US President George W. Bush said Thursday Hambali was detained this week during a joint operation run by the Central Intelligence Agency and a foreign government in Southeast Asia. American officials declined to identify that government, but officials in Thailand said it had happened there.

(China Daily August 15, 2003)