Pakistani security officials are saying that news of the arrest of an al-Qaeda spokesman wanted in the United States for treason may not be true.

Officials on Monday said there had been confusion over the identity of a detained suspect, initially believed to be Adam G-adahn, a senior al-Qaeda membe.

Some Pakistani officials had said on Su-nday that Gadahn, a California-born co-nvert to Islam with a $1m bounty on his head, had been arrested on the outskir-ts of the city of Karachi.

But a senior government official and two security agents said on Monday the suspected al-Qaeda operative picked up in Karachi was not Gadahn.

"Our initial impression was that the guy was Adam Gadahn but that information now looks incorrect," said one security official, who declined to be identified.

The arrested man was believed to be an American who goes by the alias Abu Yahya, the officials said. Gadahn is known to have used a similar alias.

"Probably the name and his origin caused the confusion," the first official said.

He declined to speculate about the identity of the arrested man except to say he was apparently an American al-Qaeda operative.

He said: "We don't know yet how big a catch he is!"

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