Indonesia's police chief said today a man suspected of being the mastermind of last month's Bali bombings has confessed to planning the blasts.
Besides the bombings in Bali, National Police Chief Mr Da'i Bachtiar said the suspect, Mr Imam Samudra, had admitted he was involved in church bombings in another part of Indonesia in 2000 and a blast at a Jakarta shopping mall in 2001.
Speaking in the western Java town where Mr Samudra is being held, Mr Bachtiar said the 35-year old Indonesian engineer told police he held meetings to plot the October 12th bombings that killed at least 185 people on the holiday island.
"He confessed to the meetings in Solo on the planning and other things until they led to the decision to conduct bombings in Bali," Mr Bachtiar told a news conference, referring to a city on Java island.
Mr Samudra appeared briefly at the news conference standing in handcuffs behind a glass panel. He did not speak to reporters.
Indonesian police have arrested seven people in connection with the Bali attack including Samudra and two men believed to be his bodyguards, who were caught this week.
Samudra was arrested in the western Java province of Banten yesterday in a major breakthrough in the investigation into the attack in Bali's Kuta Beach night club area.