Pakistan?s president and army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, said junior army and air force personnel were involved in attempts to kill him last December.

Speaking to private Pakistani television channel Geo on Wednesday in an interview to be broadcast later on Thursday, Musharraf said several personnel had been arrested and would soon be tried in open court.

Geo?s website directly quoted Musharraf as saying that two types of people were involved in terrorist attacks, ?those misled by religious extremists and those doing it for money?.

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan confirmed that army and air force personnel had been arrested in connection with the attacks but said none were officers.

Shaukat declined to say how many were being held or what they were charged with, but he said the number was ?less than 10?.

?All of them have been apprehended and their cases are under investigation,? he said. ?None of them is of officer rank ? all of them are junior people, privates or corporal.?

Diplomats have long suspected that the December attacks, both of which involved powerful explosions detonated close to Musharraf?s motorcade, must have been carried out with the help of inside knowledge of the president?s movements.

Some Islamic elements in the army are thought to be angry about Musharraf?s policy of backing the US-led ?war on terror? and concerned about his moves towards peace with India. Shaukat said Musharraf had reiterated in the interview that the attacks had been masterminded by Osama bin Laden?s al Qaeda.

?He did explain that there is a mastermind in al Qaeda somewhere, some foreigner, and he is the mastermind who had recruited some local Pakistani who recruited the guys to work for him. So those people who were working for him, whether in the air force or army, might not have known exactly who they were working for. It is not correct to say that al Qaeda has infiltrated the military.?

In February, authorities arrested a Tunisian, Khalifa bin Hussain, and a Pakistani in connection with the attacks on Musharraf, both of which involved powerful explosions detonated close to his motorcade.