The arrest was made in the red-light Jalan Chow Kit district in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

No further details were given.

The body of eight-year-old Nurin Jazlin Jazimin was found in a sports bag dumped outside a shophouse last September, a month after she was kidnapped.

Police believe there may be links between her case and that of five-year-old Sharlinie Mohd Nashar, who went missing on Wednesday, and the so-called Kampung Baru molester.

Sharlinie was abducted outside her home in Taman Medan, a few kilometres from the place where Nurin's body was found.

To assist the investigations, police yesterday took five children who were believed to have been victims of the Kampung Baru molester, to an abandoned college building in Kuala Lumpur.

Nurin was believed to have been held there by her captor.

The so-called Kampung Baru molester was described by some of his victims as a man on a motorcyle who tricked them into following him after promising to buy them ice cream if they helped him find his missing cat.

Kampung Baru is a Malay village in Kuala Lumpur where the serial molester picked up some of his victims.

Petaling Jaya police chief Arjunaidi Mohamad said yesterday that police had not found any new leads in the probe into Sharlinie's disappearance despite scrutinising every tip-off given by the public.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil appealed to the abductor not to harm the toddler.

The reward for information on Sharlinie's whereabouts rose to RM100,000 (S$44,000) yesterday after tycoon Vincent Tan promised to add RM83,000 to the RM17,000 offered.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK