Lebanese authorities said they halted a bomb attack against the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday, arresting two men outside the compound, one of whom was carrying more than two pounds of explosives.

Undated file photo of the consular facility of the fortified U.S. Embassy compound in Aukar, a hilly suburb north of the Lebanese capital Beirut where Lebanese soldiers arrested a suspected bomber trying to enter the embassy, Dec. 10, 2003.  [AP]

A Lebanese man in his 30s, identified as Abed Mreish, was seeking to enter the embassy when he was stopped at an army checkpoint about 500 yards from the complex, a senior Lebanese security official said.

A Palestinian taxi driver was arrested as a possible accomplice.

"The device did not explode, nor was anyone harmed," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

The interception came less than a week after the State Department urged Americans in Lebanon to keep a low profile, vary times and routes of travel and avoid Palestinian refugee camps because of growing tensions and anti-American rhetoric in the Middle East.

Security has been very tight at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon since the 1980s, when suicide bombers carried out two attacks on embassy buildings. On May 30, the United States reopened its consulate in Beirut, nearly 20 years after its closure during the country's 1975-90 civil war.

The Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, refused to speculate on the Mreish's motives, saying army officers were interrogating him.

The Lebanese Army said in a brief statement that the men were attempting to bring a bomb into the embassy compound.

Accounts appeared to vary on who foiled the would-be attack.

The Lebanese security official said it was Lebanese soldiers who stopped Mreish. He said Mreish was carrying more than two pounds of explosives in a small suitcase.

But Boucher said Mreish was stopped by Lebanese working for the U.S. Foreign Service, apparently guards. He also said the Palestinian apparently drove the bombing suspect to the embassy but that it was unclear if he knew about the plot.

A State Department travel warning posted on the U.S. Embassy Web site last Friday did not refer to a specific threat in Lebanon. However, it cited bomb attacks against American fast-food franchises and a British supermarket chain and the killing of an American nurse in the southern port city of Sidon in the last two years.

The statement noted that the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, which is on the U.S. terrorist list, has not been disarmed and it maintains a strong presence in many Lebanese areas.

Lebanon joined the U.S.-led war on terror but has refused American demands to dismantle Hezbollah, which is regarded here as a resistance movement for leading the guerrilla war against Israel's 18-year occupation of a border zone in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah is believed to have ties to Iranian-backed Shiite militants who kidnapped Westerners and bombed American targets in Beirut during the civil war. Shiite militants also bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983, killing 241 American servicemen.

One ambassador and a diplomat were kidnapped and killed and another two ambassadors were wounded in the bombings of U.S. buildings during the civil war.

Earlier this year, Lebanese authorities uncovered a terrorist plot to kill U.S. Ambassador Vincent Battle and attack the U.S. Embassy and other Western targets.

Some 35 people have been indicted for bombing U.S. and British targets in Lebanon between May 2002 and April this year in which five people were hurt. All 35 are charged with forming a terrorist network to bomb Western targets and harm Lebanon's reputation.

The attacks on Western targets in Lebanon have been linked to anti-American sentiments over the U.S. occupation of Iraq and what is regarded as American bias toward Israel.

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