PESHAWAR, Pakistan - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said today that a Libyan member of al-Qaida was behind two assassination attempts against him in December, and vowed to rid Pakistan's tribal regions of hundreds of suspected foreign terrorists.

Musharraf, who escaped the attacks unhurt, did not name the Libyan suspect, who he said funded Islamic militants to carry out the bombings.

"The man who organized the suicide attacks against me was from Libya and a member of al-Qaida," he told a meeting of tribal elders in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Musharraf has previously said al-Qaida could have played a part in the attacks, but this was the first time he explicitly identified a suspect.

"He gave 1.5 to 2 million rupees ($26,100-$34,700) to a Pakistani who recruited Islamic militants, Islamic extremists," Musharraf said.

The president promised that the government would reveal more details about who was behind the attacks. He said the suspects would be shown on television.

"You will see their interviews," he said, without giving further details.

The two bombings happened 10 days apart in December. On both occasions, Musharraf was traveling in a motorcade in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad. The first attack destroyed a bridge seconds after his vehicle passed, but no one was hurt. In the second attack, suicide bombers tried to ram into his vehicle, killing 16 people.

In his address today, Musharraf also made his strongest statement yet about the presence of al-Qaida rebels in Pakistan's rugged mountains bordering Afghanistan - believed to be a possible hiding place of Osama bin Laden.

He acknowledged for the first time that between 500 to 600 foreigners "from different countries" were living in the semiautonomous tribal areas, and vowed to drive them out if they would not surrender.

"You give any name to them, al-Qaida or not, but I will say we will not allow these foreigners to stay in our tribal areas and create problems for us," the president said.

"We will not allow them to get training in our tribal areas, store explosives and go back to Afghanistan for killing their Muslim brothers."

"We will stop this practice," he said.