DUBLIN (AFP) - Irish police have been granted more time to quiz Muslim suspects over an alleged assassination plot in Sweden, they said Thursday as a report said a suspect known as "JihadJane" came here last year.

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"JihadJane", the online name of American Colleen LaRose, spent two weeks in Ireland last September on a "fact-finding trip" before her arrest in October, according to the Irish Independent newspaper.

During her trip LaRose was in regular contact with a 49-year-old Algerian, who the daily describes as "the prime suspect" among seven Muslims -- four men and three women -- arrested in Ireland this week.

The seven are three Algerians, a Libyan, a Palestinian, a Croatian and a US national, a police source told AFP on Thursday.

LaRose was monitored with the Algerian and his US-born partner in Cork and Waterford, where the seven were arrested Tuesday over an alleged plot to kill cartoonist Lars Vilks for drawing the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.

LaRose came to Ireland from the Netherlands, where she began her trip to Europe inquiring how to acquire residency in Sweden, it said.

The newspaper said LaRose, 46, was arrested by FBI agents when she stepped off a plane at Philadelphia international airport on October 16.

Her detention was not revealed until details of the charges against her were disclosed on Tuesday, when the seven Muslims were arrested in an operation coordinated with US and European security agencies, it added.

A district court, meeting in closed session Wednesday, gave police permission to keep five of the seven behind bars. The other two were to appear in court Thursday for a similar request.

Under Section 50 of Ireland's Criminal Justice Act they can be held without charge for a maximum of seven days, said a spokesman.

Vilks, who drew the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog in a 2007 picture, has a 100,000-dollar (74,000-euro) bounty on his head from an Al-Qaeda-linked group.

A police spokeswoman declined to comment on the Irish Independent report that the US suspect had visited Ireland.