Malaysian terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top is probably still at large in Indonesia despite reports of his death, police said today, even as the net closed around his extremist network.

Fingerprint analysis confirmed that a man killed by police special forces in a raid on a suspected Noordin hideout on the weekend was not the Malaysian Islamist, a police source involved in the investigation told AFP.

"It's not him. We know from his facial structure as well as his fingerprints," the source said, requesting anonymity.

"We're continuing to track his whereabouts."

Noordin's death has not been formally ruled out, however, and police are publicly sticking to the line that DNA tests are required.

"Whoever the man is, it should be proved in a scientific way," national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said.

Photographs of the bullet- and shrapnel-riddled body dragged from the remote farmhouse in Central Java at the end of a 17-hour siege on Saturday morning do not resemble Noordin, police sources and independent experts said.

"The picture of the guy doesn't bear any resemblance," said Jakarta-based security analyst Sidney Jones, of the International Crisis Group.

Mounting pressure

It was unclear whether Noordin was ever in the Central Java house that was besieged overnight Friday, but the counter-terrorist police source indicated that the Malaysian might have escaped before the police arrived.

NONE"We were not as quick as him," he said, without elaborating.

Noordin has already escaped two earlier armed assaults on his hideouts, and his legend will only grow among his disciples and on Islamist websites if he has managed to slip away again.

Pressure will also mount on Indonesia's US-trained counter-terrorism forces to track him down before he can do further damage to the country's hard-earned image as a stable and moderate Muslim-majority country.

"It's a huge disappointment - the police were convinced they had Noordin in that house," Jones said, adding however that they could take heart from other recent arrests and the discovery of a major bomb factory outside Jakarta.

No comment from police

Earlier, the Indonesian police refused to comment today on widespread local media reports that a man killed in a raid on the weekend was not fugitive terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top, as initially believed.

Police were sticking to their line that only DNA tests would confirm the identity of the man who was shot dead by police at the end of a 17-hour siege of a remote farmhouse in Central Java on Saturday.

"It's better that we wait for the forensic identification. I cannot give any comments on that," senior counter-terrorism official Ansyad Mbai told AFP.

But unnamed officials and security sources were quoted extensively across the Indonesian media as saying the dead man was not the Malaysian Islamist wanted for multiple suicide bombings in Indonesia since 2003.

"Based on the fingerprints, his facial features and body posture we can confirm that he is not Noordin," one such "senior official" from the counter-terror police was quoted as telling The Jakarta Globe daily.

Several analysts also said they did not believe the dead man was Noordin, who is one of the most wanted alleged terror masterminds in Asia and leads a breakaway faction of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network.

Five accomplices arrested

Police have come close to arresting Noordin several times in the past and have captured or killed some of his closest associates during a six-year manhunt.

NONEThey have intensified the hunt since the July 17 twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the capital, which killed seven people including six foreigners, plus the two bombers.

The police raid on his suspected hideout overshadowed other operations including the arrest of five of Noordin's alleged accomplices and the uncovering of a major bomb factory in Bekasi, outside Jakarta.

Two would-be suicide bombers were shot dead by police early Saturday at their rented house in Bekasi as they tried to resist arrest, police said.

Police chief Danuri said they had rigged a small truck as a bomb and were planning to launch a suicide attack against Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's main residence, which is a 12-minute drive away.

The attack, timed around Indonesia's Independence Day on August 17, had been ordered by Noordin during a meeting on April 30 as revenge for the execution of the Bali bombers late last year, Danuri said.

-AFP