Czechs confirm Atta met with Prague-based Iraqi diplomat

Associated Press WriterPRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Government officials confirmed Friday that suspected suicide hijacker Mohamed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence agent during one of two trips to Prague.

Interior Minister Stanislav Gross said the meeting between Atta and Iraqi diplomat Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani took place several weeks before Al-Ani's expulsion from Prague on April 22, 2001 for conduct incompatible with his diplomatic status.

Gross did not give a precise date or venue of the meeting and declined to answer questions on those topics.

Intelligence sources and government officials had suspected for weeks that Atta had contacts with Al-Ani, but Gross was the first to confirm the suspicions.

Atta, an Egyptian who studied in Germany, is believed to have been on American Airlines Flight 11 that smashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

Gross said he first entered the Czech Republic by bus from Germany on June 2, 2000 and flew to the United States from Prague the next day.

"We can confirm now that during his next trip to the Czech Republic he did have a contact with an officer of the Iraqi intelligence, Mr. Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani," Gross said.

Gross did not provide further details or reveal al-Ani's whereabouts.