UK Govt official found with possible bomb-making kit

LONDON - British police have charged a man who works at a government immigration office with possession of explosives after finding potential bomb-making equipment in his house, an official statement said today.

The arrest is the latest in a series of embarrassments for Britain's interior ministry which led to minister Charles Clarke being fired in a cabinet shakeup this month.

Callum Atkinson, 19, was detained in Liverpool, on Wednesday and was due to appear before magistrates in the city.

He has been charged with "possession of explosive substances for unlawful purposes", police said in a statement.

The Home Office (interior ministry), which oversees the immigration department, confirmed the arrest and said the teenager had been suspended from work pending the investigation.

Police said there was no link between the arrest and a series of anti-terrorism raids across the country, including in the Liverpool area, on Wednesday.

The Home Office has been beset by scandals and allegations of incompetence in recent weeks.

Last month, the ministry admitted it had allowed more than 1000 foreign prisoners to walk free from British jails when they should have been considered for deportation.

That led Prime Minister Tony Blair to fire Clarke and replace him with former Defence Secretary John Reid.

The ministry is also looking into allegations that a handful of illegal immigrants worked for several years as cleaners at the offices of the Home Office's immigration department.

On Saturday the ministry said it had suspended an immigration officer from his job after a newspaper alleged he offered to help an 18-year-old Zimbabwean woman with her asylum application in exchange for sex.

And on Sunday it confirmed it wrongly branded around 1500 innocent people as criminals due to a computer mix-up.

The gaffes have increased pressure on Blair, who faces calls from some members of his own Labour Party to hand over power soon to finance minister Gordon Brown.

- REUTERS