However, Saudi security officials told various news agencies and satellite TV stations that it was still unclear whether the two arrested — and a possible third suspect who may have escaped, according to US Embassy officials — were connected to the May 12 bombings in Riyadh.

In Riyadh, Crown Prince Abdullah said that the Kingdom had stepped up measures to strengthen its security.

He also said that the criminals who carried out last week’s attacks as well as those who helped them would be severely punished.

“Those who sympathize with these renegades or justify their acts will be regarded as belonging to them,” the prince warned, while receiving the families of the victims of the Riyadh bombings.

“Islam does not recognize (these terrorists). It is a religion that teaches peace and love and forbids bloodshed or any act that harms human beings or even animals,” he said.

News of the arrests in Jeddah came as Saudi and US officials said they have new intelligence that fresh Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks are imminent in Saudi Arabia or the United States.

The Saudi ambassador to Washington told reporters late Monday that “there is chatter, a high level of chatter regionally and in other international spots” about possible attacks in the Kingdom or the US.

At a press conference in Riyadh yesterday, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal concurred, saying, “definitely the threat is there... this is why we are working not just to crush terrorists but to fight future ones. All efforts have been stepped up to combat it.”

“Measures that the government has taken are seen everywhere you go in the city. We are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best,” Prince Saud added.

“Nobody can guarantee that nothing will happen in the meantime. But we are secure in the knowledge that at least we are doing everything that we can to prevent (attacks),” he said.

Speaking after a meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, Prince Saud stressed that removing the cause or “breeding ground” of terrorism was an international responsibility.

“Our success should be measured in terms of preventive action. The threat is high, not just in Saudi Arabia but in other parts of the world,” he said, adding that progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace moves would remove one major cause of such violence.

In the event of future attacks, Saudi oil fields could be a target, Saudi oil and security analyst Nawaf Obaid told Arab News last night, despite a so-called fatwa issued in the 1990s by Osama Bin Laden stating that the oil fields should not be targeted in any attacks.

“Last summer, an attempt to bomb Ras Tanura — the world’s largest oil terminal complex — was foiled, but the intention of destroying these oilfields was there and still exists,” Obaid said.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Prince Naif denied in remarks published yesterday that members of the National Guard sold any arms to Al-Qaeda operatives in the Kingdom.

“This is absolutely untrue. There had been no investigation because there was nothing. The arms we found are not similar to those of the National Guard,” Prince Naif told Okaz newspaper.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that Saudi officials were investigating suspected arms sales to Al-Qaeda operatives by members of the National Guard. Weapons seized on May 6 at an Al-Qaeda safe house in Riyadh were traced to the National Guard, the Post added.