PARIS, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Al Qaeda terrorist network had been infiltrated by the French intelligence services, who had alerted the Americans in January 2001 about a "project to hijack an aircraft," the French daily "Le Monde" reported on Monday.

    The French daily dated Tuesday, which appeared on Monday afternoon, affirms that a unit within France's General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) had been specifically charged with gathering information on Osama Bin Laden from 1995.

    According to the daily, a note dated January 5, 2001, sent to the head of the American CIA in Paris, gave an alert on "a project to hijack an aircraft." The note did not specify if the mode of operation would be like that of "9.1 1" attacks, but only revealed Bin Laden' s intentions.

    The note showed that the French secret services knew in October2000 that the Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden had retained the technique of hijacking aircraft as an operation mode against the United States and its allies.

    During this period, the French secret agents were closely monitoring diverse options discussed by the terrorists on this project. According to all French sources encountered, this document was sent quite quickly to Bille Murray, head of CIA in Paris, according to Le Monde.

    The daily affirmed having obtained a copy of a 328-pageclassified confidential file, notably containing notes, reports, maps, graphics, organization charts and satellites photos, all exclusively on Al Qaeda.

    For the DGSE, Al Qaeda is not a vague organization with blurred contours. It is a well structured organization, with an executive committee.

    In July 2001, the French secret services had gathered enough data base which enabled them to establish a complete organization chart, according Le Monde.