DENPASAR, 05 October 2005 - Indonesian police are searching for five men from the far western Javanese province of Banten over suspected involvement in Saturday's deadly bombings on the holiday island of Bali. Banten Police Chief Senior Commissioner Badrodin Haiti told Indonesia's official Antara news service the five were members of a ring led by Imam Samudra, who has been sentenced to death for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings.

Policemen are resting while the scene of one of the bomb explosions is still being investigated.

Three of the five men had already served jail sentences for holding explosives believed to have belonged to Samudra, he said. The men had since been under police surveillance but had now disappeared from their homes. "We are chasing them to places they are likely to visit," the commissioner said. Saturday night's attacks on three crowded restaurants in Bali killed 22 people and injured more than 100 others, many seriously.

Investigators meanwhile are slowly piecing together evidence -- pellets, batteries, cables and detonators -- from the scenes of the blasts and renewed calls for anyone who recognizes grisly photographs of three suicide bombers to step forward, The Associated Press reports.

No one has claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks Saturday that devastated two seafood cafes in Bali's Jimbaran beach resort and a three-story noodle and steakhouse in downtown Kuta, the island's bustling tourist center. Two men were being held for questioning, but they have not been named as suspects, Bali police chief Maj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said Tuesday, adding that 39 witnesses also were being debriefed.

The Australian newspaper on Wednesday reported the bombers may have been "clean skins" schooled by a Philippines-based terror group, Abu Sayyaf, at its training grounds on The Philippines island of Mindanao. The newspaper said intelligence officials believe the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist network -- the chief suspect in the latest Bali bombings -- has been using the Philippines as a training base.

The Indonesian government has once again rejected calls to ban the JI network. "It is an underground movement. We can only ban an established organization," presidential spokesman Andi Malarangeng said, adding that the government would continue to fight terrorism "under whatever name." Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Wednesday downplayed Jakarta's stance on JI, saying a ban would make little practical difference.

"I do not believe that outlawing Jemaah Islamiyah is going to make an enormous practical difference," Mr Howard told radio listeners. "It is not the be all and end all of tackling terrorism in Indonesia," he said. Terror expert Professor Amitav Achayra told CNN Wednesday that an official ban on JI would make it legally easier for Indonesian authorities to pursue members of the group.

"I think a ban would be helpful," said Achayra, who is Deputy Director of the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore. But he added such a move would be politically difficult for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had to be careful not to inflame anti-Western passions in his country.

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