Al-Qaida still considers Los Angeles a top target. Al-Qaida sees the city as vulnerable to attack as before 9/11, it was reported on Tuesday.

Terrorist groups may get funding from street gangs which are draining resources from law enforcement agencies working to head off future attacks, the Daily News quoted security experts as saying.

"We are not safe and we will not be safe for many years," Los Angeles police Deputy Chief Mark Leap said.

"There are many, many more people who consider themselves jihadists now. And criminal enterprises are being used to support terrorist activities."

Links between organized crime and terrorism are particularly troubling in light of a message posted on an al-Qaida Web site saying the group wants to kill 4 million Americans in retribution for the killing of Moslems.

"Al-Qaida recently announced on their Web site that they have two main targets -- Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia," said Michael Intriligator, a terrorism expert at the University of California in Los Angeles.

"I don't know why they picked Melbourne, but Los Angeles was specifically mentioned as a target for their next terrorist attack," said Intriligator.

He expressed concern over the possibility of an attack with a black-market nuclear device, according to the Daily News.

"I think we are not at all prepared for this and we are living in what psychologists call a state of denial," he said. "It's such a horrendous thing to think about. We think it happened way back in 2001 and that it can't happen again."