Jakarta – One of Southeast Asia's most wanted militants is hiding in Indonesia's Central Java province, police said on Friday as they declared more suspects in attacks on the holiday island of Bali last October.

Deputy national police spokesman Brigadier-General Anton Bahrul Alam said police had arrested 12 suspects for their involvement in last year's October 1 suicide bombings on restaurants in Bali, which killed 20 people.

Alam said four people who had been arrested in Bali were directly linked to the bombings, while the others, detained in Central Java province, were named as suspects for helping hide accused militant mastermind Noordin M. Top. Asked whether Malaysian-born Top was still in Central Java province, Alam said: "Of course. Where else would he run?"

Top is blamed for helping mastermind a series of bombings in Indonesia in recent years, including the 2005 Bali attacks carried out by three suicide bombers with backpacks, and attacks in Bali three years earlier that left 202 people dead.

Police said last week that Top, already identified as a senior player in Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah, had more recently proclaimed himself leader of a group called Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad, or Organisation for the Basis of Jihad. Jemaah Islamiah is considered a regional arm of al Qaeda, and police said the new group might have an al Qaeda link as well.

Top worked closely in Indonesia with fellow Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, who was killed in a police raid on his East Java hideout in November.

On Friday, Alam said documents seized late last year after the October Bali bombings laid out plans for terror attacks on densely populated Java island, but he gave no further details.

Police say Top is an expert in recruiting young suicide bombers among Indonesia's impoverished masses.