US officials scrutinized passenger and crew lists of flights from overseas on Thursday amid fears of a possible terror attack involving commercial airliners.

A day after Air France cancelled six flights between Paris and Los Angeles at US urging, officials said terrorists might still be plotting a Christmas repeat of the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed about 3,000 people.

"We remain concerned about al-Qaida's desire to use an aircraft as a weapon," said Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the US Department of Homeland Security.

The Los Angeles Times said France had acted after US intelligence found as many as six people, including a licensed pilot, booked on Air France's scheduled Christmas eve Flight 68 from Paris to Los Angeles "might be al-Qaida or Taliban terrorists."

Last weekend, the US Government raised the country's terror alert to its second-highest level, citing fears of "al-Qaida's continued desire to carry out attacks" against American targets, especially over the holiday period.

In Britain, police said they tightened security at the US embassy in response to Washington's warnings about possible attacks against Americans during the Christmas period.

Dutch police sealed off the area around the US embassy in The Hague on Friday after a telephone threat, but a spokeswoman said later there was no security problem.

In Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, authorities facing a wave of militant attacks arrested five people after raiding computer shops selling compact disks that contained hidden bomb-making instructions, a local newspaper reported.

In Sweden, the Foreign Ministry said a Swedish citizen had been detained in Montreal, Canada, on suspicion of having links with what Canadian authorities classify as a terror group.

Australian officials said yesterday that armed undercover security guards will fly on all Qantas Airways Ltd flights between Australia and Singapore.

(China Daily December 27, 2003)