They had travelled abroad, one made bombs, and both wanted to die fighting as martyrs in places such as Afghanistan, Palestine and Chechnya.

A third man involved in their activities was placed last month under a Restriction Order, which allows him to stay home but limits his activities outside. All three are aged 26.

In making the announcement on Thursday, the Home Affairs Ministry also said it was releasing six men: five Jemaah Islamiah detainees and a man who helped the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Philippine militant group.

Even as terror groups like the JI have been crippled, the latest arrests mark a new threat, which the Government last year described as a 'troubling new phenomenon' of self-radicalised individuals who imbibe extreme ideology independent of direct recruitment by established terror groups.

Security analysts say this trend of 'DIY terrorists' is set to grow as such ideas multiply on the Internet, on as many as 6,000 websites.

The first new detainee is Muhammad Zamri Abdullah, who had gone abroad to try to join a 'mujahidin network', whose aim is to wage armed jihad - a struggle he believed was religiously-justified.

Since 2003, he had also spread his radical ideas and succeeded in influencing two: Maksham Mohd Shah, who like him was detained last month, and Mohammad Taufik Andjah Asmara, who was put on the RO last month.

The ministry gave no further details of the trio.

The arrests come less than a year after 'self-radicalised' former law lecturer Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader was detained after making plans to join the Taleban.

In its statement, the ministry traced the latest detainees' militant activities to 2006, as they prepared for 'armed jihad'.

It started with Zamri falsely claiming in early 2006 that he was the local representative of a foreign radical group.

He made Maksham and Taufik members by taking the bai'ah, or oath of allegiance, to him, and collected money from them to donate to another militant foreign group.

In mid-2006, his interest in militant rhetoric online led him to befriend a foreigner in the JI's Al-Ghuraba cell. In Nov 2006, Zamri and Maksham went abroad to meet the foreigner.

They were planning to take the bai'ah to leaders of radical groups in that country to join 'mujahidin networks'.

Zamri believed doing so would let them get training and eventually travel overseas to wage armed jihad in such places as Afghanistan, Palestine and Chechnya.

One leader they wanted to meet was a known leader of a terrorist group. But both detainees could not get an appointment with the foreign leaders.

The ministry also said that Maksham, apart from developing radical ideas, made improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Inspired by news footage showing Molotov cocktails in attacks, he experimented with sparklers to make the bombs.

Later, to avoid detection here, he went overseas to source for materials commonly used to make IEDs, such as ball-bearings and fertilisers.

He also initiated overseas camping trips after watching terrorist training videos.

Both Maksham and Zamri used the trips 'to toughen themselves mentally and physically so that they would be prepared to undertake armed jihad?, the ministry said.

As for Taufik, Maksham introduced him to Zamri in 2003. Like the duo, he became 'self-radicalised'.

But the ministry said that its investigations showed he had begun to distance himself from them and their activities.