WASHINGTON, Aug 22: President Pervez Musharraf has said that a Libyan Al Qaeda suspect masterminded the two attempts on him last December. He's "the mastermind behind the two plots," Gen Musharraf said this in an interview to the Time magazine, to be published on Aug 30.

The Time conducted its own investigation about this new suspect and after talking to US officials it reported that Abu Faraj Farj, 30, is believed to have replaced Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as Al Qaeda's chief of operations.

Al Qaeda's former chief of operations, who is better known by his initials KSM, was captured on March 1, 2003 in Rawalpindi by Pakistani security officials and extradited to the United States.

Last year, he reportedly gave a list of Al Qaeda operatives who were planning terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad to his American investigator but Farj was not on the list.

US intelligence officials, however, told the Time magazine this week that Farj has taken over much of KSM's role: devising plans for terrorist attacks inside the United States and directing Al Qaeda agents and helpers to that end.

"He's big," a US counter-terrorism official told the magazine. "He's a major player." The report points out that Pakistan has placed a bounty of $341,000 on his head but says that catching him won't be easy.

According to the report, Pakistani security agencies believe that Farj is operating out of the rugged tribal belt on the Afghan border, where 100 Pakistani troops were killed in June fighting Al Qaeda suspects and their local supporters.

The report says that Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding in this region as well and has proven so elusive. It warns that new leaders seem to be stepping in to fill the vacuum, and Farj in particular is emerging as a prime focus of the terrorist hunt.