Bomb blast at Indonesian parliament

4.30pm

JAKARTA - A bomb exploded in the basement of Indonesia's parliament complex today police said, but there were no reports of casualties or major damage.

The explosion comes after police said last week they had arrested nine suspected Jemaah Islamiah militants and had seized a cache of high-explosives.

An official from the parliament who saw the explosion, which occurred around 8.30am (1.30pm NZT), said nobody was injured in the blast and it caused little damage. He said he was not sure what caused the explosion.

"There is broken glass. I am not sure whether it was caused by bomb or an explosion in the airconditioner," said the official, who declined to be named.

Asked what caused the explosion, Central Jakarta deputy police chief, Ricki Wakano, told Reuters: "A bomb."

Bomb incidents have occurred sporadically in the world's fourth most populous nation since it started its transition to democracy in 1998. Motives have varied from gangland rivalry and sectarian feuds to political violence and reaction to international issues.

Police said on Friday they had seized TNT and chemicals with an explosive power 10 times more deadly than last October's Bali blasts during raids in Jakarta and Semarang, the capital of Central Java province.

Jemaah Islamiah, which has been linked to al Qaeda and was established to form an Islamic state in Muslim areas of Southeast Asia, is blamed for the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

Police have already arrested some 30 militants over Bali.

- REUTERS