The government must make public the meetings conducted by terrorist groups as well as any information on bank accounts connected to such groups in this country, said Keadilan leader Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail today.

"Why did the government conceal the meetings or activities of alleged terrorists in Kuala Lumpur until it was exposed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations?" she asked.

She also said the government must give full information if terrorist groups have accounts in local banks.

The issue of terrorist groups appearing here emerged following the global war against terrorism initiated by the US government after the Sept 11 terror strikes in New York and Washington.

The US government has blamed Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network for the attacks.

In conducting its investigations into Osama's various links, the FBI said that it had obtained a videotape showing a meeting of two alleged terrorists in Kuala Lumpur last October.

Khalid Al-Midhar, one the suspected hijackers involved in ramming a plane into the Pentagon, was seen on a surveillance tape meeting with a man whom American officials suspect played a hand in the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship in the Yemeni port of Aden.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had said that immigration authorities allowed the suspects to enter the country as they did not have any criminal records.

Abdullah also pledged to cooperate with the US and stressed that Malaysia does not shelter groups engaging in terrorism.

'Come clean'

On reports by the US media that Osama maintained bank accounts here under a false name, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said there was no evidence that terrorists had stashed money in local financial institutions.

"Perhaps they could have already closed their accounts but the information we have gathered so far shows there is no terrorist money in Malaysia," said the premier.

Wan Azizah said that it was inadequate for Mahathir to merely deny or decry these issues.

"He must come clean and explain to the people the extent of the government's knowledge and involvement in this matter," added Azizah who is also the member of parliament for Permatang Pauh.

She also called upon Mahathir not to use the US tragedy for his domestic political agenda.

"His comments that violence will be the inevitable result of suppression and oppression, alluding to the US foreign policy when all this while he has been responsible for stifling legitimate dissent at home."

Major contracts

Meanwhile, the Sept 22-28 edition of The Economist magazine said the government had given major contracts to Osama's family business, the bin Laden group.

The London-published magazine said that the bin Laden group, the biggest construction company in Saudi Arabia, was involved in constructing "airport facilities in Kuala Lumpur".

The group, set up by Osama's father Mohammed Oud Laden, has a turnover of tens of billions of dollars, said the magazine.

The magazine added that Osama became estranged with his family, but not before inheriting approximately US$300 million.

However, when Osama's citizenship was revoked by the Saudi government in 1994, it froze his bank accounts and his shares of the bin Laden fortune was confiscated.

"Some of the money lost then has, however, been replenished .... by receiving secret donations from rich well-wishers in the Middle East and from Islamic charitable organisations," added The Economist in an article titled 'The spider in the web'.

Osama has been living in Afghanistan since 1996 as an honoured guest of the Taliban regime.