Fourteen people were arrested Thursday morning in Belgium for alleged links with terrorist group al-Qaeda and attempts to carry out an attack, Belgian public broadcaster VRT reported.

The suspects were arrested during house searches in the capital Brussels and the Walloon city of Liege. The report quoted unnamed justice sources as saying that three of the men were on the verge of carrying out a suicide attack during the European Union summit in Brussels which opens on Thursday.

The 14 people are being questioned by the police, the report said.

AFP news agency quotes Belgian federal public prosecutor Johan Delmulle as saying that the alleged suicide attack could be "part of an operation by a group or groups in Pakistan or Afghanistan."

"We do not exclude the possibility that the attack would have targeted Belgium or Europe," said the public prosecutor.

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2008)