Arrested militant was meeting bin Laden - police

JAKARTA (AP):

Officials here say a top Indonesian terror suspect arrested this year in the town where Osama bin Laden was killed this week was intending to meet the al-Qaida chief, although a senior American counterterrorism official said the two never met and Umar Patek's arrest in Abbottabad "appears to have been pure coincidence".

Indonesian and Pakistani intelligence officers said the arrest of Patek on January 25 in Abbottabad by Pakistani officers did not lead to the American raid on bin Laden on Sunday, but his arrest there may raise questions over how isolated bin Laden was in his final months.

Patek is wanted for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings and trained with al-Qaida in Pakistan before the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. He is a key Southeast Asian militant and was one of the last on the run believed to have contacts with al-Qaida's central command.