Interior Minister Muhamed Besic identified the suspect as Bensayah Belkacem and said telephone logs provided by foreign intelligence services showed Belkacem had at least one telephone conversation with Abu al Maid, described as a "senior military aide" to bin Laden.

Besic said Belkacem and al Maid discussed the procurement of foreign passports and that Belkacem had two sets of documents identifying him either as Yemeni or Algerian.

Besic did not link the suspect to the Sept. 11 attacks but suggested more arrests would follow, based partially on information provided by NATO and the embassies of the United States, Britain, Germany and Italy.

"We are gathering additional information and data from their databases," he said.

Dozens of suspects have been detained since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, but most have been released after questioning. Besic, however, said he expected Belkacem would face formal charges.

He was detained in Zenica, 25 miles northwest of Sarajevo.

During the Bosnian war, Zenica was the stronghold of radical fighters from Islamic countries who fought alongside Bosnia's Muslims in the country's war of independence precipitated in 1992, when the republic broke away from Yugoslavia.

Of the hundreds who fought in Bosnia against Serbs and Croats, some married local women and stayed, and most of them have Bosnian passports.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the fighters have been the subject of increased police surveillance.