Canada has banned all air freight originating from Yemen in the wake of last week's discovery of explosive material on flights bound for the United States, Transport Minister Chuck Strahl said on Monday.

Strahl said in a briefing that although there are no direct passenger flights from Yemen to Canada, interim measures have been imposed to make sure all inbound cargoes from Yemen will be diverted for further screening.

"I signed off since then an interim order that will prevent air cargo from transferring from Yemen," he said, adding that Canada is assessing the situation to decide what next steps might be necessary.

Strahl said Canada, which has an agreement with the United States on screening all the cargoes that are heading down to the United States, is in a joint process on how to beef up cargo inspections.

U.S. authorities has intelligence that the Yemen-based group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has been linked to the bombing plot because the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, was used by the group in the last Christmas bombing attempt of a Detroit-bound airliner.