Evidence mounts against al-Qa'ida, says Australia PM

Evidence is mounting of the involvement of al-Qa'ida and a linked south-east Asian group in the bomb attack that killed more than 180 people on the resort island of Bali, the Australian Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Speaking to the Parliament in Canberra, Mr Howard said the Australian government would call on the UN to list the Southeast Asian group Jemaah Islamiyah as a terrorist organisation.

Mr Howard said: "We will be moving to have Jemaah Islamiyah listed as a terrorist organisation in the United Nations as soon as possible and have received indications from other countries ... that that move will be supported."

He did not give any further details of the evidence.

Earlier yesterday, Mr Howard and defence minister Robert Hill had said al-Qa'ida and Jemaah Islamiyah were prime suspects in the planting of the car bomb, which tore through a Bali nightclub on Saturday night, but qualified their statements by saying further evidence was needed.

Mr Howard said listing Jemaah Ilamiyah with the UN as a terrorist group would "give rise under certain trigger mechanisms in legislation for certain action to be taken". He did not detail what such action would be.

Australia is expected to have the highest number of victims in the massive car bomb that ripped through a nightclub popular with foreign tourists in the beachside Bali resort of Kuta. Identifying bodies has been difficult because of the power of the explosion and ensuing blaze.

Mr Howard said 20 Australians have been confirmed among the dead, but more than 200 still remain unaccounted for.

"We expect the Australian death toll will grow significantly. The nation must prepare itself for a much larger death toll than the publicly confirmed numbers," he said.

Balinese officials said that 39 positive identifications had been made - 15 Australians, eight Britons, five Singaporeans, six Indonesians, one German, one French citizen, one Dutch citizen, one New Zealander and one Ecuadorian.

Australian consular officials in Bali said many of the people killed in the attack were burned beyond recognition or blown to pieces by the force of the blast.

Earlier today, Mr Howard was keeping up pressure on Indonesia to work with Western governments in its investigation into who planted the bomb that killed more than 180 people, many of them Australians, on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Mr Howard said he spoke for 20 million of his fellow citizens in saying that Indonesia must work with Australia, the US and Britain to find those responsible for the attack.

"We earnestly hope that the Indonesian government seriously applies itself, we urge them to do so," he said, adding that Australia, Britain and the US had all promised assistance.

"But it will require naturally the 100 per cent commitment of the Indonesian authorities," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

The US Ambassador to Australia Tom Schieffer said Indonesia had previously "just ignored the war on terrorism", but he believed last weekend's tragedy would change that.

"I hope that President Megawati will take seriously this incident, I believe she will and will do some things that the Indonesians have been reluctant to do in the past," he said.

The US President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have offered forensic and intelligence support to Indonesia and urged President Megawati Sukarnoputri to join the fight against terrorism.

Last night, Indonesia's defence minister blamed al-Qaida and its extremist allies in Indonesia, the Jemaah Islamiyah group, for the bombing.

Mr Howard yesterday sent Australia's foreign and justice ministers to Bali and Jakarta to keep pressure on Indonesian authorities to help more than 40 Australian federal police and an unknown number of intelligence officers who have been sent to the holiday island.

Australian officials fear their investigations will be hampered because police in Bali did not properly protect the crime scene.

"It was secured and not secured and then secured and not secured I think is the story there ... I am told by the police that has been a problem," Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said yesterday.