Malka said that bin Laden "will try to make use of various countries around us from which to penetrate [into Israel], and he will try various creative means." Malka refused to give details of the terrorist's attempt to infiltrate Israel a few months ago, other than to say, "He tried to carry out an attack that was thwarted."

Malka's words came after a broadcast this weekend of Arabic satellite channel Middle East Broadcasting (MBC) reported that followers of bin Laden, based in Afghanistan, were planning an attack on American and Israeli "interests'' within the next few weeks.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told a gathering of the Jewish Agency today that "bin Laden is attempting to penetrate into Israel with the aid of local residents and by attempts to infiltrate his own people into the country." Ben-Eliezer added that bin Laden's agents plan to attack not only Israeli targets but also American and European targets within Israel.

Ha'aretz previously reported that a number of attempts by bin Laden to carry out attacks in Israel had been exposed. According to Ha'aretz, last June "Israel arrested a Gaza resident at the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, who was sent to the territories to set up a local arm of bin Laden's organization."

The Associated Press added that the resident arrested was Nabil Okal, a member of the Hamas. At the time Hamas leaders denied that they had sent Okal for training or that they had links to bin Laden.

Unnamed Israel military experts were quoted in the Israeli media this week as saying that additional Palestinians have trained in bin Laden's bases in Afghanistan.

Israeli experts debate bin Laden threat
Dr. Gil Feiler, a senior researcher at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, played down the significance of a bin Laden threat against Israel. "Israel is not at the top of his priorities," Feiler told the Jerusalem Post.

"We know that in the past years we didn't hear much about bin Laden vis-à-vis Israel. Most activity has been against American targets," Feiler added, saying that Israel's real threats remain the Hamas and the Hizbullah.

Feiler's opinion runs counter to that of other Israeli terrorism experts. Yoram Scheitzer, a researcher on terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, told a seminar last week "Bin Laden is a professional, he takes a long time to plan." Scheitzer said, "It is not inconceivable that Bin Laden is planning terrorist attacks [against Israel]."

Americans take threat seriously
The U.S. State Department issued a "worldwide caution'' on Friday, saying American citizens and interests abroad may be at risk of a terrorist attack from extremist groups. It mentioned groups with links to bin Laden and his Al-Qaida organization as a possible source of a threat.

U.S. military forces in the Middle East were put on a heightened state of alert. A U.S. Marine Corps contingent in Jordan cut short its training exercises and returned to its ships. Ships of the U.S. 5th Fleet sailed out of port in Bahrain.

U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia and Qatar said on Saturday they were warning Americans to be on guard against an "increased risk of terrorist action."

A spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban rulers rejected American concerns about a possible bin Laden terror strike. "All the activities of Osama bin Laden are under the tight control of the Taliban,'' Usman Shaharyar, a foreign ministry official told The Associated Press. "Osama has no such facility in Afghanistan which can be used against any country," he added.

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