Washington: US intelligence agencies suspect that there are at least 5,000 people connected to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network in the country.

Small groups of about half-a-dozen Middle Eastern men in Seattle, Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta are under surveillance by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other intelligence agencies for their suspected links to the al-Qaida and their supporters, intelligence officials told the 'Washington Times'.

"One intelligence estimate," said a US intelligence official, "is that there are up to 5,000 people in the United States connected to al-Qaida."

The 5,000 figure was reported in classified intelligence reports sent to government policy-makers within the past month and is an increase from earlier estimates, the paper said.

Earlier this year, US government officials put al-Qaida numbers in the US at more than 100 active members with hundreds of sympathisers.

In one case, five men of Middle Eastern origin rented rooms in Seattle and conducted activities that officials would not specify but called "unusual".

The report also said that US intelligence officials detected signs of preparations for an attack against a cruise ship in Los Angeles in late May.

The men were spotted as they measured the length of the pier near the cruise centre by walking off the distance and videotaping the centre. They left the area before being identified or questioned.

The intelligence prompted the US Coast Guard to issue a warning on June 7 that terrorists were targeting US ports.

PTI