ALGIERS, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Algerian security forces arrested three Libyans who were planning to join an al-Qaida ageny in the country, the Algerian Press Service said on Saturday.

    The Libyans, aged between 22 and 25, had been "recruited in Libya by extremist networks with international ramifications," thereport said, quoting a head of the security forces.

    The militants were planning to join the Algeria-based al-Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb in the mountains, the agency said,

    Their capture in the capital Algiers was made possible by information provided by a former member of the group who had surrendered to the authorities.

    Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, is one of the main terrorist organizations in Algeria. It claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings that killed 33 people in Algiers on April11.

    Since the cell's change of name at the end of last year, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has become an accomplice of al-Qaida in north Africa.