(AFP) Police will work closely with Philippine officials to investigate a Malaysian arrested at the Manila airport with US$50,000 dollars and 104 passports, said Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today.

Abdullah said police would work with their counterparts to determine if the arrested man, Azmi Salleh, 42, was just a travel agent as claimed.

Philippine authorities detained Azmi late Thursday as he tried to board a Kuwaiti Airlines flight bound for Bangkok.

Azmi was believed to be in Manila to apply for visas for a group of Malaysians seeking to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, but Filipino authorities said they wanted to determine if he had any terrorist links.

"I was told he went to Manila to take (pilgrimage) visas," Abdullah was quoted by Bernama as saying.

"That's as far as I know for now, and police are still investigating if there are other related issues (to his arrest)."

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Jamil Johari said Malaysian and Filipino police would work together to ensure Azmi was really a Malaysian citizen and to investigate his "true intentions of going to the Philippines".

Valid passports

Meanwhile, the foreign ministry said today early investigations confirmed all the passports in Azmi's possession were valid and that he was in Manila only to procure visas for Malaysians wanting to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

"So far, he has been found to have no links with any international militant group," the ministry said in a statement released to Bernama.

"However, Malaysian security forces are carrying out further investigations on this case."

The ministry said the bearded Kuala Lumpur resident was scheduled to be charged next Monday for violating Philippines custom regulations, which set a US$10,000 limit to the amount of foreign currency that can be taken out of the country.

Malaysian ambassador to the Philippines Taufik Mohammed Noor yesterday denied Azmi was involved in terrorist activities.

He claimed Azmi was trying to circumvent regulations which require prospective Malaysian pilgrims to obtain their visas in Kuala Lumpur in line with a country quota imposed by authorities in Saudi Arabia.

The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) limits the number of pilgrims each year to only one percent of a country's population.