AMMAN, Jordan, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Jordan said Wednesday the suspected killers of a U.S. diplomat would be tried in the kingdom and that the United States has not asked for their extradition.

Prime Minister Ali Abul Ragheb said Libyan Salem Saad Salem bin Suwaid and Jordanian Yasser Fathi Ibrahim would "receive a fair trial and punishment here in Jordan."

The government on Saturday announced the arrest of the two men in connection with the Oct. 28 assassination of Laurence Foley of the US Agency for International Development. Foley was shot outside his residence in Amman.

The government also said the suspects were affiliated to Osama bin Laden´s al Qaida organization, which allegedly gave them the orders to kill Foley, 62, and to carry out more "terror attacks" against foreigners and Jordanian officials.

Abul Ragheb told members of the foreign media at the prime ministry that the authorities were not seeking other wanted suspects in the case inside the country.

He added that two others linked to the case, alleged al Qaida members Fadel Nazzal Khalaileh, better known as Abu Misaab Zarqawi; and his aide, Moammar Ahmad Yousef, were outside Jordan.

Zarqawi, who was convicted in absentia three years ago by a Jordanian court in another case, was believed to have given bin Suwaid and Ibrahim the orders to kill Foley, the first Western diplomat killed in the kingdom.

In what appeared to be an attempt to link Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with al Qaida, President George W. Bush said that Zarqawi was recently in Iraq. But Jordan´s Abul Ragheb on Wednesday cast doubt that the Iraqi government had provided shelter to the suspect, saying that Zarqawi was also wanted by Iraqi authorities.

He said the Jordanian authorities, whom he insisted "have a good experience with al Qaida and its operations since the early 1990s," believed Zarqawi, a Jordanian, was hiding in "northern Iraq near the Iranian border."

Abul Ragheb said that security in Jordan has been significantly increased because al Qaida cells "are scattered everywhere. They are like time bombs that can switch on whenever they get orders and money." (Copyright © 2002 United Press International 12/18/02)