Mr Goh said they had planned to use seven truck bombs and 21 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in the attacks, timed for December or January.

"To give you an idea of what 21 tonnes of ammonium nitrate could do, you've got to remember in 1995 in Oklahoma City, the Federal Building, which was a nine-storey building, was brought to the ground with just one tonne of ammonium nitrate," he said in a TV interview.

"So - seven trucks, three-tonnes each, moving simultaneously to seven different targets in Singapore - boom! I don't know how many thousands would be killed."

Singapore has detained 13 alleged members of the Indonesian-based militant group Jemaah Islamiah, linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, who are accused of planning the Singapore raids.

Officials said they had evidence that the group was planning to bomb US warships at Changi naval base and attack a bus carrying US military personnel. They said the group had also checked out diplomatic targets, including the Australian and British high commissions and the Israeli embassy.

The evidence includes a surveillance videotape, a copy of which was found in Afghanistan late last year.

Officials said one of those detained had confirmed that the tape was given to bin Laden's former military chief, Mohamad Atef, who is believed to have been killed in a US bombing raid in November.

The Singapore Straits Times newspaper reported last week that a Jemaah Islamiah document titled Jihad Operation in Asia, uncovered by Indonesian intelligence officers, had detailed plans for simultaneous attacks on December 4 on the US embassies in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.

The document also named Fathur Rohman al Ghozi, an Indonesian arrested in Manila in January, who is accused by Philippines authorities of being a key figure in planning and funding the truck-bomb plot.

After al Ghozi's arrest, police found weapons and explosives in a house he had rented in the southern city of General Santos. They said the materials were to be smuggled to Singapore via Indonesia for the attacks.

Singapore officials said one of the men they are holding, Malaysian Faiz Abu Bakar Bafana, had obtained three tonnes of ammonium nitrate which was stored in southern Malaysia. Malaysian officials last month said the chemicals had since been removed.

In a separate television interview at the weekend Singapore's Senior Minister and former prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, said Singapore faced a continuing threat from terrorists, despite the recent arrests.

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