Officials used the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for detention without trial, to hold on to the alleged members of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the Philippines-based Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The announcement came just six days after a car bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta by suspected JI members killed nine people and injured 180 others, underscoring Southeast Asia's vulnerability to terrorism.

"It is assessed that these persons remain at risk of re-involvement in terrorism-related activities and their continued preventive detention is necessary," said a Singapore government statement.

"These 17 detainees have had long and extensive exposure to militant ideology and received military or terrorist training," it said.

"Several of them were directly involved in terrorism-related activities, including terrorist targeting."

They were among 22 people arrested between August and September 2002 under the ISA, criticised by civil rights groups as an instrument of repression but described by Singapore as crucial in the fight against terror.

Aside from the 17 still under detention under Wednesday's extension, 18 other suspected militants arrested separately remain in government custody, the home affairs ministry said.

The government statement said the security threat posed by JI and the MILF in the region "remains real and significant".

Singapore, a staunch US ally, has accused the JI and MILF of involvement in plots to bomb the US and Israeli embassies along with other targets as part of efforts to destabilize Southeast Asian governments and promote radical Muslim interests in the region.

Government documents alleged that two of the 17 suspects, Mohamad Abdullah Jauhari and Azman Jalani, had gone to Afghanistan for weapons and explosives training at Al-Qaeda facilities there.

A separate government paper on the terrorist threat to Singapore identified two detainees -- Abdul Wahab and Faiz Abdullah -- as among those who allegedly confessed that they were were willing to be "suicide bombers" if instructed by JI leaders.

Two of the 17 were linked to the MILF, which has been fighting for a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao since the late 1970s.

One of them was identified as Husin bin Ab Aziz, a Singaporean who had undergone training at the MILF's Camp Abubakar, a sprawling, jungle-clad guerrilla base spanning several Mindanao provinces.

In 1998, Husin allegedly underwent field and firearms training with the MILF and performed sentry duty at Camp Abubakar "to guard against attacks by the Philippines army," according to another Singapore government document.

Husin, identified as a businessman, had also admitted donating and raising money for the MILF.

The second detainee linked to the MILF was identified as Habibullah, a religious teacher.

The Singapore government said Habibullah had trained briefly with the MILF in 1995 and went for further training in 1996 and 1997.

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