RABAT, March 15 (Reuters) - Moroccan police have detained 18 people in Casablanca slums and are hunting six others they suspect of having links with a suspected suicide bomber who blew himself up at an Internet cafe, a minister said on Thursday.

On Sunday night, Abdelfattah Raydi, a 23-year-street orange juice seller, blew up a belt of explosives he was carrying, killing himself and wounding four others at the cafe in Sidi Moumen, a suburb which is home to Casablanca's largest slum.

Youssef Khoudri, one of the four wounded, was arrested hours later by authorities on the assumption he was a second intended suicide bomber.

Security sources said police have yet to interrogate him in hospital as he was unable to answer because of his wounds.

"Following the March 11, 2007, gruesome act, the authorities carried out investigations and took measures to arrest 18 persons who had links with the two persons who carried out the explosion," Communication Minister and government spokesman Nabil Benabdallah said.

The 18 people were arrested in Casablanca's slums but six other suspects were being sought across the country, said Benabdallah, quoting remarks by Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa to a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Benabdallah did not say whether the 18 arrested people were would-be suicide bombers, but added: "The situation is not clear for us. When we get more details, we will make them public".

Raydi was jailed in 2003 following the suicide bombings that killed 45 people in Casablanca. He was freed under a royal pardon in 2005 before ending a five-year-prison sentence.

More than 130 other prisoners were also pardoned. Authorities said Raydi and other freed detainees were members of a radical Islamist group the government blamed for the 2003 bombs.

Benabdallah said Raydi was part of plot to attack unspecified government institutions and economic interests in Casablanca.

"The executor of the terrorist operation had worked since November 2006 in planning his terrorist project through the creation of an organisation which included former prisoners who are from Sidi Moumen area," Benabdallah added.

He did not elaborate but Moroccan newspapers said the group planned to attack Casablanca's police and paramilitary gendarmerie headquarters, hotels and restaurants.

Security officials had said before Sunday's explosion they had information about an imminent attack but that they lacked details.

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