Two held over Bali bombing

Police in Indonesia today announced the arrest of two men in connection with the Bali nightclub bombing.

A 28-year-old man, identified only as Zulfan, was picked up yesterday in North Sumatra for using a fake identity card, but police said he also resembled one of the suspected bombers.

A second man was today detained in Jakarta.

The arrests come six days after the release of sketches of three suspected bombers and the launch of a nationwide manhunt to find them.

Police said they had at least 10 promising leads, and expressed confidence that the investigation into the October 12 attack was making progress.

Brigadier General Edward Aritonang, a spokesman for the Indonesian police, said they had determined the identities of three suspects in the bombings - said to be "low-level operatives" - but he refused to release any names. It is not immediately clear if Zulfan is one of them.

Police arrested another man on Thursday because he resembled one of the sketches, but released him on Saturday after deciding it was a case of mistaken identity.

About 120 detectives and intelligence officers from Australia, the United States, Britain, Japan and other countries are working on the case with Indonesian investigators.

Brig Gen Aritonang said that the joint Indonesian-Australian investigative team "knows the whereabouts of the three suspects" and with enough time is "confident that we will resolve this case".

Although no group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, the regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah has emerged as the prime suspect.

Abu Bakar Bashir, the group's alleged spiritual leader, is scheduled to be questioned for his role in a series of Christmas bombings in 2000 and a plot to assassinate the Indonesian president, Megawati Sukarnoputri. But he is not a suspect in the Bali blasts.

The identities of five more victims were today confirmed by police, bringing the total of those positively identified to 118.

Officials in Bali say at least 184 people were killed in the bombing. Seven more died later after being evacuated to hospitals in Australia, bringing the preliminary total to 191.

The identification process has accelerated in recent days as authorities amass more dental, fingerprint and DNA records.