Filed at 7:38 a.m. ET

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have smashed a cell of militant Muslim activists tied to the network of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the suicide attacks on the United States, officials said Wednesday.

The six Algerians held Tuesday night and Wednesday morning had trained in camps in Afghanistan, where the United States believes bin Laden is hiding, the officials said.

``Behind this network and these groups is the organization of the renowned Islamic terrorist Osama bin Laden which gives them financial support, organizes training of their members in camps he controls in Afghanistan and, when he sees the need, gives them targets,'' Spain's Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The six held in Spain were members of an Algerian rebel faction Daawa Wal Jihadwhich is understood to have close links to bin Laden, Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy said.

The six specialized in falsifying documents for other extremists and carrying out credit-card fraud to help finance rebel activity in Algeria and to buy equipment for rebels in Chechnya, the minister said.

The arrests followed a two-year investigation aided by police from Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, which had been involved in planning the raids.

They followed similar detentions of suspected members of bin Laden's organization in countries around the world after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon which left nearly 7,000 people dead or missing.

Rajoy said the Algerians had links with two other suspected members of bin Laden's group who were arrested in Belgium and the Netherlands on September 13 and who had planned to carry out suicide attacks against U.S. interests in Europe.

``Both belonged to a group which planned to carry out terrorist suicide attacks against North American targets in Europe,'' he said.

Spanish police made the latest arrests in Almeria, Valencia and Huelva in south and southeastern Spain and in the northern region of Navarre, close to the border with France.

DOCUMENTS, PLANE TICKETS SEIZED

Material seized included false identity documents, forgery equipment and plane tickets for trips between Spain and Algeria and between Spain and France, Rajoy said.

Police also found a catalog listing night-vision equipment, the minister said.

Spain has stepped up investigations into militant Islamic groups. Officials say Mohammed Atta, one of the suspected hijackers, traveled extensively in Spain in July, possibly meeting others linked to the bin Laden network.

Atta, 33, is believed by authorities to have been at the controls of one of two hijacked jets that slammed into the World Trade Center towers in New York. A third hijacked plane slammed into the Pentagon near Washington.

In June, Spanish police arrested a suspected senior member of bin Laden's group, Mohamed Bensakhria, in the southeastern city of Alicante. He was extradited to France in July.