Abu Husna and Agus Purwantoro are said to be key leaders in Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a militant network that once used Al-Qaeda funds to carry out strikes in South-east Asia, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

They were detained in Malaysia in March and are awaiting trial here on charges related to the killings of Christians in Indonesia between 2003 and 2005.

Severely weakened, the JI has not carried out a major attack in three years and most experts assumed it lacked the coordination to seek foreign assistance.

But a senior security official said the two were heading to Iraq via Syria, once a main route for militants sneaking into Iraq to join the insurgency.

He said they carried a laptop that had a detailed funding proposal in both Indonesian and Arabic to be presented to Al-Qaeda.

'Jemaah Islamiah from central Java decided to send them to Iraq with a proposal,' the official told the Associated Press. 'JI needs money to pay for explosives and operating expenses. Its budget is very limited.'

But its choice of seeking cash from Al-Qaeda in Iraq was a questionable one.

Since early last year, Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been uprooted from its former strongholds and denied its main sources of revenue - smuggling, extortion and control of local black markets.

It is unclear how many resources Al-Qaeda stashed away before losing its pipelines to cash.

An Iraqi-led offensive began on Tuesday in the last insurgent footholds near Baghdad.The top United States commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said earlier this month the military pressure may have forced Al-Qaeda leaders to shift resources to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Police and foreign governments have said the JI used Al-Qaeda money to fund the Bali blasts and two other deadly bombings on Western targets in Indonesia in 2003 and 2004.

Experts say those financial links have been severed, and the last attack with suicide bombers in three Bali restaurants in 2005 was financed locally.

Ms Sidney Jones, an expert on South-east Asian militant movements, said Iraq was an 'odd' destination given that about 200 Indonesian extremists are known to have fought or trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

'If they wanted direct contacts with Al-Qaeda, why not go to Pakistan, where Indonesian JI members have a well-established network?' said Ms Jones, who is with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

'But whatever the motivation, the trip certainly shows that JI remains plugged into the international mujahideen network.'

The AP earlier reported that Husna and Purwantoro said their journey had been arranged by an Algerian called 'Jaffar' in Jakarta, who gave them air tickets, contacts in Syria and fake passports.

The security official said the passports were stolen from two Indonesians at London's Heathrow Airport, while the tickets to Syria were bought in Thailand.

'This shows wide international connections,' the official said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS