A man arrested in the US for trying to smuggle bomb parts from Canada is suspected of belonging to Algeria's radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA), according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

US and Canadian authorities are trying to find out if Algerian-born Ahmed Ressam, 32, charged with trying to bring explosives into the United States, had accomplices in what may have been a millennium bomb plot.

The RCMP said Ressam, detained on Tuesday after landing in Washington state on a ferry from British Columbia, had been turned down for refugee status in Canada because of his links to the GIA.

The GIA is widely blamed for a series of massacres in Algeria and was suspected to be planning terror attacks in France last year to coincide with the soccer World Cup.

Police said Ressam shared an apartment in Montreal last year with Karim Said Atmani, who was extradited to France on charges stemming from bombings in 1995 and 1996.

Ressam is wanted in Canada for having violated immigration rules as well as for two thefts and a break-in. He was arrested once for theft in Montreal in 1998.

He went into hiding after his application for refugee status was rejected.

Vehicle clue

The RCMP said they were seeking a van registered in Quebec to Benni Noris, the name given by Ressam to US authorities when he was detained, but said the van was not believed to contain explosives.

The FBI, which is leading the investigation in the United States, declined to comment on Saturday.

Witnesses in Vancouver said Ressam had been staying at the 2400 Motel in the city with another man for more than two weeks before he tried to enter the United States at Port Angeles, Washington.

Canadian police searched the motel room on Friday.

Employees of the motel told reporters the two men paid cash and kept a low profile and that the floor of their room was often littered with plastic garbage bags.

US authorities said they found two 22-ounce (660ml) plastic jars containing nitroglycerin in the rental car that Ressam was driving.

They say Ressam had reserved a motel room in Seattle for 14 December, the day he arrived, and was carrying tickets that would have taken him the next day to London via Chicago and New York.

The Seattle motel was not far from the Space Needle tourist attraction, which is expected to be the focus of a large New Year's Eve celebration.

A week ago, the United States warned its citizens that several terror groups were believed to be planning attacks on crowded places during celebrations marking the New Year