DUBAI -- Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in comments published on Sunday that his country had detained five people named in a recent U.S. terror alert for suspected links to Osama bin Laden's militant network.

Yemen has been on heightened alert since the FBI issued a warning on Monday about a possible attack on U.S. interests in the poor Arab country by suspected Al-Qaeda members.

It also published a list of the names of 17 people it suspected of involvement in the attack, Reuters reported.

Saleh told the Arabic-language daily ***Al-Hayat ****the five detainees included state sector employees and students. They were among a group of 84 people Yemen had detained for suspected links to Al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

"Fawaz al-Bureei worked as a janitor in the presidential palace and he is wanted by the Americans who say he is in Yemen. We are searching for him," he told the daily.

Yemen, trying to clean up its image as a haven for Islamic militancy, has arrested scores of people for questioning since the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities.

Saleh also said the 84 detainees included people with suspected links to the 2000 bombing of a U.S. destroyer, the Cole, in which 19 U.S. servicemen were killed. Yemen is still probing the suicide attack, which occurred in Aden port.

But he said the main targets of a Yemeni manhunt for supected backers of Al-Qaeda were still at large.