London: al-Qaida could have trained more than 100,000 terrorists from 70 countries in its camps in Afghanistan, American intelligence officials said.

Between 70,000 and 120,000 terrorists were trained in Afghanistan before the coalition invasion in 2002, the officials were quoted as saying by 'The Independent' on July 20.

The figure, based on testimony by senior US intelligence officials to a joint inquiry by the US Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees, is at least three times higher than previous estimates.

The hearings were told that the al-Qaida recruits came from more than 70 countries and were trained in skills from bomb making and weapons use to foreign languages. Many are believed to have escaped capture and are lying low around the world.

One of the authors of the report, Senator Bob Graham, said the estimate suggests that al-Qaida remains the main threat to the West. The Bush administration "lost focus" when it turned its attention to war with Iraq, in his view.

"We allowed al-Qaeda to regroup and regenerate," Senator Graham said.

"They've conducted a series of very sophisticated operations, thus far none in the United States, but seven Americans were killed in Saudi Arabia. We have to assume that as those people were placed around the world, some were placed inside the US. Some of them are in the US today."

PTI