The US has presented Arab governments with a list of demands to enforce a crackdown on "terrorist" suspects in the wake of last week's suicide attacks in New York and Washington.

According to senior Arab officials, the US has also asked some governments to appoint co-ordinators Washington can deal with directly.

"The list says that terrorism is not allowed, that you cannot feed or shelter terrorists, that if the US asks for anyone they have to be arrested and given to them and if we hear of anyone we have to stop them," said a senior official. "Arabs were also asked to speak loud against terrorism, show no tolerance and co-operate with the UN."

US officials said the US had informed governments in the region what it would like them to do to fight terrorism, but would not comment on specific requests.

Some Arab nations will have difficulty meeting all US demands - particularly Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority - where organisations labelled by the US as "terrorist" are considered legitimate resistance movements against Israeli occupation.

Officials say that no Arab government can afford not to co-operate with the US, but Arabs are lobbying Europe and the US to link the war on terrorism with a settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect behind the attacks, last year attempted to set up a base in northern Lebanon, prompting a crackdown by Lebanese authorities. But analysts in Beirut say some of Mr bin Laden's followers may have sought shelter in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Lebanese newspapers reported on Thursday the US has asked for the arrest of five people, none of whom are Lebanese.

Lebanon, however, is likely to be asked also to dismantle Hizbollah, the resistance movement that drove Israel out of south Lebanon last year and is represented in the Lebanese parliament. Syria has similar concerns over radical Palestinian groups based in Damascus. So far, say Lebanese officials, the US has only underlined that it considers Hizbollah to be a "terrorist" group. "The US's approach is not confrontational," said a Lebanese official. "So to dismantle an organisation we have to also address why the organisation is there in the first place."

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