By Barbie Dutter in Sydney (Filed: 29/10/2002)

The militant Muslim Jemaah Islamiah aims to incorporate northern Australia into a vast Islamic super-state, a report claimed last night.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted intelligence from the Philippines stating that the group - suspected of orchestrating the Bali bomb attack which killed more than 180 people - has four cells in the region.

One of the cells covers the Indonesian province of West Papua along with northern Australia, the Four Corners documentary claimed after a two-month investigation.

Roilo Golez, the Philippines' national security adviser, confirmed that Australia was part of a plan for an Islamic super-state taking in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

"Jemaah Islamiah's vision of a pan-Islamic state includes parts of northern Australia. That's what our intelligence indicates," he said in last night's programme.

Meanwhile, there have been more than 40 attacks against Muslims in Sydney in a backlash brought on by the Bali bombings, police said.

Women's veils have been ripped from their faces, clerics have been spat on and mosques and schools vandalised, Ken Moroney, the New South Wales police commissioner, said.

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2002