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Pakistani government and intelligence officials on Wednesday denied media reports that a major suspected al-Qaeda figure linked to the July 7 London attacks had been arrested.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid rejected the reports which said Pakistani security agencies had arrested a Briton of Pakistani descent, Haroon Rashid Aswad, during a series of raids.

"We have arrested no one with the name of Haroon Rashid," the minister told AFP. "The reports in this regard are untrue. I deny it."

A senior security official said: "We have made no such arrest in Pakistan. We have not yet been able to track down the linkages of the three London bombers here who travelled to Pakistan before the attacks.

Reports '300 percent wrong'

"Reports in various medias that we have arrested anyone with direct links to the London bombing are 300 percent wrong," said the official, who heads an intelligence network in the eastern city of Lahore.

The media reports had said Rashid was arrested during raids in Lahore and Karachi, and that he was being interrogated over his alleged role in the attacks in London that killed at least 56 people and wounded 700.

AFP reported earlier that Pakistani investigators had questioned a business family in Lahore which had made several phone calls to Rashid, the suspect.

"We questioned the family in Lahore and have found that the calls were about business matters," a Lahore-based security official said.

Key suspect

"Haroon Rashid appears to be a key suspect for the British police in connection with the London bombing, but we do not have specific information on his suspected role in the July 7 bombings," the official said.

British authorities have said the bombings of three London subway trains and a bus "bore the hallmarks" of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Police have identified three British-born Muslim men of Pakistani descent and a Jamaican-born Muslim convert as the four who carried out the attacks.

100 suspected militants detained

Pakistan has detained more than 100 suspected Islamic militants in response to international pressure to crack down on extremists after the bombings, police sources said on Wednesday.

Security forces raided religious schools and offices across the country and made more than 100 arrests after President Pervez Musharraf issued "clear orders" to stop the spread of violence and hatred, officials have said.

AFP