A key member of the US-based group of alleged al-Qaeda supporters arrested over the past several days is still at large, reports say.

I can tell you [Osama bin Laden] came to the camp, visited, gave speeches and encouraged everybody

FBI agent Peter Ahearn

CNN and the Buffalo News newspaper quoted government sources and police as saying the suspect - identified as Kamal Derwish - was believed to have recruited the other members of the group in Lackawanna, near Buffalo.

"He's being looked for all over the world," a police source told the Buffalo News.

The authorities also said another suspect was being sought by the police.

Six US citizens of Yemeni descent believed to be from the same group have been charged with providing "material support" to the al-Qaeda network.

If convicted, they could each be sentenced to up to 15 years in jail.

The men's families have denied they had any links to the network, which is blamed for the 11 September attacks.

Military training

One of the suspects, Mukhtar al-Bakri, was charged on Tuesday in court in New York, after he was detained by US agents in Bahrain last week.

Five others, who were detained in raids on Friday and Saturday in Lackawanna, near the city of Buffalo, were charged at the weekend.

Binalshibh's capture is thought to be a huge blow for al-Qaeda

US authorities in New York state said on Sunday that they had begun an investigation into the men several weeks before the 11 September terror attacks.

FBI officials said there was no evidence that the men were planning an imminent attack.

This is the second such group to be arrested in the US.

Two weeks ago, another five men were charged in Detroit with acting as a combat cell for Islamic groups waging a holy war against the US.

Major arrest

The arrests came as the US claimed a major victory in its war against terrorism with the arrest of Ramzi Binalshibh, a key al-Qaeda suspect, in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

Mr Binalshibh, who is thought to have been intimately involved in the planning of the 11 September attacks, has been transferred to US custody outside of Pakistan.

He is also believed to have been involved in other attacks blamed on al-Qaeda - including the bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia in April, and the suicide bomb attack against an American destroyer, the USS Cole, in Yemen in 2000.