Pakistan Monday said that top al- Qaeda suspect Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who was wanted for two assassination attempts against President Pervez Musharraf, has been handed over to the United States.

Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani confirmed remarks by President Musharraf in an Arab newspaper on Monday that Abu Farraj had been handed over.

"The president made a statement to this effect. The president's statement was self-explanatory," Jilani told the weekly press briefing in Islamabad without giving any further details.

Abu Farraj was projected as al-Qaeda's No. 3 leader, but some al-Qaeda experts said he had never been on the US list of the world's most-wanted men. He was arrested on May 2 from Mardan, a town in Pakistan's northwest frontier province.

Musharraf in an earlier interview last week said that Pakistan would hand Abu Farraj to the United States. In an interview with United Arab Emirates daily al-Ittihad, he confirmed that Abu Farraj had been handed over.

"Yes, we turned Abu Farraj al-Libbi over to the United States recently, and we don't want people like him in our country," Musharraf was quoted as saying.

Abu Farraj was wanted in Pakistan for what the officials said masterminding two attempts on Musharraf's life in December 2003.

Source: Xinhua