2 from al Quada cell arrested in NYC bomb plot

The arrests came as the US government and security services are reeling from their failure to prevent an alleged attempt to blow up a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day.

President Barack Obama has repeatedly singled out the Zazi probe as proof that US intelligence is in fact doing a good job against an increasingly multi-headed foe.

Officials named the two men detained Friday as Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay.

They "were arrested by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York as the result of an ongoing investigation," Kolko said.

Details of the charges against the two were not immediately announced. They were expected to be brought before a judge in Brooklyn later Friday.

The New York Times quoted unnamed sources saying the pair had travelled to Pakistan with Zazi in 2008, making them prime suspects in the unfolding bomb plot probe.

NBC television reported that the pair had been under surveillance since Zazi was arrested.

Medunjanin is a Bosnian immigrant and Ahmedzay is a taxi driver, the NBC report said. They attended the same New York high school as Zazi, the Times reported.

Zazi has been charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and is being held without bail in Brooklyn.

He allegedly received training from a group linked to Al-Qaeda while he was in Pakistan.

Prosecutors say he then traveled to New York with bomb-making instructions in a laptop. They say he also shopped for large quantities of chemicals found in beauty products that could have been the ingredients for explosives.