A chilling 90-page report states the 13, aided by foreign terrorist groups, were involved in an elaborate plan that would have "gravely undermined the security of Singapore" and led to loss of life.

One of the group, 27-year-old Mohamad Nasir, admitted direct involvement in the bombing plans, his lawyer Subhas Anandan has confirmed to AFP.

The 13, members of the militant Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, have been held held for nearly six months under Singapore's tough Internal Security Act (ISA) which allows for detention without trial.

Ibrahim Maidin, JI's Singapore leader, admitted that in selecting US targets "innocent Singaporeans would be killed, just as innocent Muslims were killed when the US bombed Afghanistan and al-Qaeda members," the ministry said.

It was reporting on the findings of an ISA Advisory Board review which backed the detention order for two years "in the first instance", allowing for further extensions.

"The 13 JI members pose an active threat to Singapore's security (and) their detention is necessary to neutralise this threat and to allow investigations to continue to ferret out all others in the JI network," the board said.

Eight of the 13 are said to have been trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. They were arrested last December for allegedly plotting to attack US and other Western targets here.

The board said all 13 admitted the allegations against them, including plans to buy 17 tonnes of ammonium nitrate.

"It is clear that all of them were involved in an elaborate conspiracy, initiated and aided by foreign terrorist groups, and each playing their separate roles here, to gravely undermine the security of Singapore," the board said.

"This plot, if carried out, would certainly have caused loss of lives, physical injury, and ... considering the huge amount of ammonium nitrate which they intended to acquire, the consequences would have been catastrophic."

Maidin and other JI leaders Faiz Abu Bakar Bafana and Khalim Jaffar were said to be "closely collaborating and receiving instructions and assistance" from foreign terrorist organisations.

Members of the group were also said to have "the capability and capacity to plan and execute violent acts".

Maidin was reported to have told the review board that there was no right or wrong in the issue and they had to attack Americans where ever they were as long as they were "doing things against Islam".

Khalim was quoted as saying he felt "deep hatred" whenever he saw US soldiers pass by his home.

The Singapore government had been keeping tabs on Maidin since the end of the Gulf War in 1991 and learned after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States that one of his associates was linked to al-Qaeda.

A video tape of likely bombing targets in Singapore was found in Khalim's home, with another tape showing similar footage found in the rubble of an al-Qaeda leader's home in Afghanistan.

According to the government, Bafana gave a copy of the original video tape to an al-Qaeda leader called Abu Hafs Mohammad Atef in Afghanistan.

Atef has been named as a lieutenant of bin Laden, the Saudi-born militant named by the United States as the mastermind of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

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