Belgium stepped up security today against a possible terrorist attack after arresting 14 suspected Islamic militants and foiling what it said was a plot to spring an al-Qaeda suspect from jail.
Federal prosecutors said the 14 arrested - suspected members of a militant Islamic group - had been planning an armed attack to free Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian national, who was arrested in September 2001 for plotting attacks on US targets.
"There are indications a terrorist attack could be in preparation," Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told a news conference.
Authorities increased police patrols at Brussels' international airport, on rail and metro networks in the Belgian capital and at commercial centres.
"They were planning to use weapons and explosives to free him ... These means could be employed for another use," a spokeswoman for Belgium's federal prosecutors said.
She said Trabelsi was arrested in Belgium for planning to attack US targets. He told a radio station he had planned to target a Belgian airbase thought to house US arms.