(AFP) A terrorist network in Southeast Asia has been "partly paralysed" by recent arrests, intelligence chiefs from five countries declared after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur today.

Speaking to reporters after the first in a planned series of "informal" conferences, Defence minister Najib Tun Razak said regional cooperation in the fight against terrorism would be stepped up.

"We have so far partly paralysed the network of terrorists here (in the region), including the infrastructure they've built but we still dont know how many agents or terrorists they have who might be keeping low for now.

"Our efforts in combating terrorism cannot stop with the success of the arrests of a few terrorists in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia but should be continuous," Najib said.

Apart from those three countries, Thailand and Brunei were also represented at the meeting, while the Philippines was due to attend but could not make it.

"We recognise the importance of sharing intelligence reports and sensitive information," Najib said.

Informal meetings

There are plans to hold similar meetings twice a year on a rotational basis, but it has not yet been determined when and where the next one will be held.

Najib said the meetings would be termed "informal" to avoid any misunderstanding that this was an early step towards the formation of a military bloc in the region.

Malaysia and Singapore have detained Muslim militants in the wake of the Sept 11 terror attacks on the United States, saying they were linked to prime terror suspect Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group.