A man suspected of telephoning a senior aide of terror suspect Osama bin Laden to discuss procuring foreign passports was arrested in Bosnia today, a government minister said.
The interior minister of the Muslim-Croat federation that makes up half of Bosnia, Muhamed Besic, identified the suspect as Bensayah Belkacem, alias Mejd.
Mr Besic told reporters that telephone logs provided by foreign intelligence services showed Mr Belkacem had had at least one telephone conversation with Abu al Maid, a senior Bin Laden aide.
The interior minister said that the two men discussed securing passports and that the suspect had two sets of identification documents, identifying him either as Yemeni or Algerian.
Mr Belkacem was detained in Zenica, 25 miles north-west of Sarajevo.
During the Bosnian war, precipitated in 1992 when the republic broke away from Yugoslavia, Zenica was the stronghold of radical fighters from Islamic countries who fought alongside Bosnia's Muslims in the country's fight for independence.
Of the hundreds who fought in Bosnia against Serbs and Croats, some married local women and stayed. Most of them now have Bosnian passports.
Estimates of how many remain vary between several dozen and hundreds. The fighters, or mojehadin, have been the subject of increased police surveillance since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.