Bali bomb suspect apologizes

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DENPASAR, Bali (CNN) -- A key suspect in last year's bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali has apologized for the attacks, but said he was proud his group had the ability to carry out such acts.

Speaking at a news conference organized by Indonesian police, Ali Imron gave a detailed confession of how he assembled the bombs that killed at least 192 people, most of them young Australian tourists.

However, he denied that any outside group had assisted the attackers in carrying out the bombings.

"I vow as a Muslim that what happened in Bali was purely from our group," Imron said without naming a particular organization.

"Nobody backed us nor sponsored us. Our ability is something to be proud of," he said.

"I hope that there will be no more arguments about who really detonated the Bali bombs."

Imron said the objective of the bombings was to hit America and its allies, "because they are the international terrorists."

He added that he did not know whether Australia was an American ally or not.

Bomb maker

"I regret what happened in Bali," Imron said. "Therefore I want to apologize to the families of victims both from Indonesia and outside Indonesia."

During the conference, held at police headquarters in Bali, Imron demonstrated how he and the other bombers assembled the explosives used in the attack.

Investigators have linked the bombings to the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), whose membership spreads throughout Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore and across Southeast Asia.

The group, which says it wants to establish a Southeast Asian pan-Islamic state, is believed by regional and Western intelligence experts to have close ties with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.

To date, at least 30 people, including several suspected key players in the Bali attack have been arrested in the joint Indonesian-Australian investigation.

-- CNN Jakarta correspondent Atika Shubert contributed to this report

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