Suspect held in Sudan was misidentified

WASHINGTON Senior Bush administration officials have backed off claims that an Al Qaeda militant in custody in Sudan is a high-ranking operative on President George W. Bush's list of most-wanted international terrorists.

The officials said the prisoner was not Abu Anas Liby, a close associate of Osama bin Laden who is wanted in connection with the bombings in 1998 of two U.S. embassies in Africa and an assassination attempt in 1995 against President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, as reported Tuesday in The Washington Post and Wednesday in the International Herald Tribune.

Officials described the jailed Qaeda member as "moderately high up" in the network's leadership, but would not disclose his name. They would only confirm that he was not Liby.

One official who on Monday identified the man held in Sudan as Liby said Tuesday that he had been wrong about the name. "They sound alike," the official said.