Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden has established links with Muslim radicals in Indonesia who are behind attacks on Christians in the Maluku islands, according to Western intelligence sources in Jakarta.

The link has alarmed the United States, whose Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr Robert Gelbard, has been criticised for accusing Indonesia's intelligence agencies of failing to stop foreign terrorist groups setting up networks in the country.

"Unfortunately, Indonesia's so-called intelligence agencies have continued to try to argue that the real enemies in Indonesia are the United States and Australia as opposed to, once again, looking at ... the real potential threat to national security," Mr Gelbard told The Washington Times.

"We are very concerned about the opportunities which exist in Indonesia, now that it has become such an open society, for extremist groups – including extremist groups from outside – to burrow in and implant themselves in Indonesia. We believe that has begun." The US State Department says bin Laden is a significant financial sponsor of Islamic terrorism.

Indonesia's parliamentary Speaker, Mr Akbar Tanjung, said the Foreign Ministry should summon Mr Gelbard to clarify his comments. "There is a possibility that the US has information that Indonesia does not have, given the fact they have a more sophisticated intelligence system."

But the chairman of the Parliament's defence, security and foreign affairs committee, Mr Yasril Ananta Baharuddin, said most of what Mr Gelbard had said could be regarded as intervention in the internal affairs of Indonesia.

Western intelligence sources say bin Laden's terrorist network has regular contact with at least one leader of the Laksur Jihad, a group of Muslim radicals who trained openly in a camp outside Jakarta early this year then went to the Maluku islands to launch a "holy war" against Christians.