Times Square bomb suspect is singing, says US attorney general

The Pakistani-American accused of the Times Square car bomb plot continued to provide investigators with useful information on Thursday as officials pursued a case linking him to the Pakistani Taliban.

US attorney general Eric Holder said Faisal Shahzad, 30, was cooperating though he has been advised of his US right to remain silent.

Shahzad has been charged with five terrorism-related counts that could result in life in prison if he is convicted.

Shahzad has admitted packing a truck with a bomb made of propane gas canisters, gasoline containers, fertiliser and firecrackers, parking it in Times Square, and fleeing on Saturday night, law enforcement officers said.

Shahzad said he acted alone, but Pakistani officials doubt him.

The bomb failed to detonate but could have caused serious damage in the busy theatre and shopping district known as the 'crossroads of the world'.

"Mr Shahzad is continuing to cooperate with us," Holder told a senate appropriations committee hearing. "During ongoing questioning by federal agents, Shahzad has provided useful information and we will continue to pursue a number of leads as we gather intelligence."

Tension remained high in New York after Shahzad was plucked from an Emirates Airline flight he boarded on Monday night even though he had been placed on a 'no-fly' list.

US authorities on Thursday stopped another Emirates airline flight as it was about to leave New York's JFK airport for Dubai because a passenger was thought to be on the no-flying list, but the incident was a false alarm.

Shahzad, 30, son of a retired air vice marshal in the Pakistani Air Force, became an American citizen last year and worked as a budget analyst for a marketing company.

At least in his initial questioning, Shahzad said he acted alone, which US and Pakistani officials have doubted.

"According to the available information, he says it was his individual act," Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik told Reuters in Beijing. "I would not tend to believe that."

Investigations in the United States and Pakistan have uncovered possible links between Shahzad, the Pakistani Taliban, and a Kashmiri Islamist group.

If it is confirmed that the Taliban in Pakistan sponsored the attempted bombing in New York, it would be the group's first attack in the United States.

US investigators are taking a 'hard look' at Shahzad's possible ties to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, but a final determination is yet to be made, a US official said on Wednesday.

Depending on what Shahzad might reveal, reconstructing his path from Pakistan to Times Square may be impossible given the complexity of Pakistan's mosaic of militant groups, many of which are united only by hatred for America and its allies.

Some analysts have speculated that the Pakistani Taliban could be responding to US drone attacks that have killed extremists hiding in Pakistan as well as civilians.

While some Pakistani press accounts have estimated civilian deaths alone at more than 600, US estimates show the Central Intelligence Agency's drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas over the past two years have killed fewer than 30 civilians.

Pakistani security officials said Shahzad was close to the Jaish-e-Mohammed, a group fighting Indian forces in Jammu & Kashmir and which also has ties to al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.