Jakarta – Jakarta police said yesterday they were following up a report that a man said to be carrying US$12 million in bogus cheques and with possible links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network had travelled to Indonesia before arriving in the US.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that US officials in Detroit had arrested Jordanian-born Omar Shishani, who they suspected trained in Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

"We have asked for information from Interpol but the cross-checks have given us no results yet," National Police deputy spokesman Edward Aritonang said. "We also need to confirm the truth of the report and whether he did come from Indonesia. If all of that is true, we'll check the plane list and possible embarkation points," he added.

The FBI in Detroit confirmed Shishani's arrest but would not say whether he may have trained in Afghanistan with Al-Qaeda, which the US blames for the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

But in Jordan, the man's brother, Mr Ahmad Shishani, said Omar has "absolutely no links at all with any terrorist group or Al-Qaeda".

"He leads a mundane life; he enjoys life; he often travels first class and he wears modern, Western-style suites," the younger Shishani said.