LIMA, Peru - Peru's top intelligence official said Thursday that international terrorists are using his country as a transit hub but not as a base of operations.

"What we have been able to prove is that our territory is being used for transit, as a corridor, and nothing else," said Adm. Alfonso Panizo, head of the National Intelligence Council, during a meeting with foreign correspondents.

He said authorities have been working closely with representatives from the U.S. embassy since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon to learn if there are groups operating in Peru with links to Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the attacks.

An Arab man was arrested at the Lima airport Sept. 10 while he was trying to travel to the United States on a stolen passport, but authorities have ruled out any connection to bin Laden's network.

Jailed ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos was seen in a secretly taped video released earlier this year telling two associates in January 2000 that bin Laden's network used Peru as a "rest stop" for traveling to other South American countries.

U.S. embassy officials said they have no information to substantiate Montesinos' statement. Peruvian Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi said Sept. 25 that authorities have no evidence that bin Laden's network ever operated in Peru.