LONDON, Jan 22: A US anti-terrorism envoy said on Thursday that while two-thirds of known Al Qaeda leaders had been captured or killed, a new generation of militants was the next area of concern.

Ambassador J. Cofer Black, State Department's coordinator for counter-terrorism, said the Al Qaeda that allegedly masterminded the Sept 11 attacks had been severely weakened by the "war on terrorism".

"The Al Qaeda of the 9/11 period is under catastrophic stress. They are being hunted down," he told the BBC. Repeating comments made by President Bush in his State of the Union address this week, Mr Black said two-thirds of the Al Qaeda leadership had been "arrested, detained or otherwise put out of business".

But he warned that young militants were still being drawn to the network. "The next group of concern would be - I would say - a generation younger," he said, adding that the new generation tended "to be long on radicalism compared with short on training".

Security analysts say the "war on terrorism" has damaged Al Qaeda, but some say it is too soon to proclaim that Washington is winning the struggle. Though accused masterminds of the Sept 11 attacks, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, have been captured, other top Al Qaeda figures, including Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al Zawahri, remain at large.-Reuters