They said interrogations of the suspects revealed that six of them had ties to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the al-Qaeda network in Iraq, while the others belonged to an underground Saudi group known as the Brigades of the Holy Shrines.

"They were planning attacks on foreign officers in the kingdom," said one security source, referring to a plot to attack US military personnel who frequent five-star hotels while on leave from duty in neighbouring Iraq.

The arrests came after an investigation that used informers to hunt Jordanian militants allied to Zarqawi who help recruit Arab militants to fight against US troops.