Jakarta  - Indonesian police gave contradictory claims over whether a man killed in a dramatic weekend raid in Central Java was one of Asia's most-wanted terrorists, media reports said Monday.

Kompas. com online quoted police sources as saying Malaysian-born Noordin Mohammed Top was killed in an 18-hour shootout in the district of Temanggung.

"We have observed this man's movements for a week. We have followed him everywhere he went and took photos of him," a police source was quoted as saying.

Other anti-terrorism squad officers, however, gave contradictory claims and said Noordin was still at large, The Jakarta Globe said.

"Based on his fingerprints, his facial features and body posture, we can confirm that he is not Noordin," the paper quoted a senior official from Densus 88, the police anti-terror unit, as saying.

Police are awaiting DNA tests on the body of the man to determine whether he was in fact Noordin, suspected of masterminding the July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed nine people including two suicide bombers.

But the DNA testing was merely a formality, the official said.

"We already have a DNA sample from Noordin's father. But even without the sample, we can already confirm that it's not him," the official said.

An unidentified official earlier told Kompas. com that police had discovered the whereabouts of Noordin by tracing electronic communications from his trusted confidant, named Aris.

Aris was arrested along with another man at a market in Temanggung hours before the anti-terror squad raided a house in Beji village.

Terrorism experts expressed doubts the man killed in the firefight was Noordin, saying pictures circulating hours after the raid did not resemble police photographs previously published of the Malaysian-born terrorist. They also said the militant leader would have never been left alone without security at a hideout.

Meanwhile, police spokesman Untung Yoga Ana strongly denied the police had circulated pictures of the dead man.

"For sure, that picture was not from the police," Vivanews quoted Ana as saying.

A photograph of the male victim with part of the skull blown off by an explosion was circulated on the internet hours after the raid, and was claimed to be the body of Noordin.

Noordin has used his ability to elude capture to create an almost mythical persona that is thought to be potent in recruiting new adherents.

Citing a confession from Amir Ibrahim - one of five suspects arrested - police said Noordin held a meeting in late April to discuss a plan to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono this month, to avenge the execution last year of three militants convicted of the 2002 Bali bombings.

Experts say another escape by Noordin would deeply embarrass the police. Initially, police officials reported that three or four people were in the building in Central Java, raising the possibility that Noordin could have slipped out during the firefight, much of which occurred at night.

Noordin, believed to be the leader of a splinter group of the radical Islamic network Jemaah Islamiah, is also accused of masterminding the 2003 suicide bombing on the same Marriott hotel, which killed 12 people, and the 2004 attack on the Australian embassy, in which 11 people were killed. (dpa)