Riyadh - Saudi Arabia has arrested a group of 44 suspects believed to be part of al-Qaeda network in the kingdom, the interior ministry said on Wednesday.

A ministry spokesman said investigations showed that the people arrested "belong to a deviant group" - a common Saudi term for al- Qaeda - who had sought to recruit youth and use charity donations to finance their activities, the Saudi news agency SPA reported.

The source said some members of the group had contacts with al- Qaeda leaders outside the kingdom. Only one member of the group was a non-Saudi, the source added.

Some members of the group were militarily trained on light and heavy weapons in foreign countries as well as inside the kingdom, according to the source.

On July 8, a special court in Riyadh convicted 330 people in what was the first known Saudi trial of suspects accused of plotting terrorist attacks on behalf of al-Qaeda.

The charges were in connection with four attacks on residential compounds in Riyadh that together killed 51 people and wounded 419 in May and November 2003, and with an April 2004 attack on a commercial building in Riyadh that left five dead and 148 wounded.(dpa)