With many of the injured in serious condition, officials feared the death toll could rise.

No one claimed responsibility for the blast at Davao airport on Mindanao Island. But the military has blamed Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels for a string of attacks, including a car-bombing at nearby Cotabato airport last month that killed one man.

The dead included a boy, a girl, 10 men -- including one American -- and seven women, officials said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who invited US troops to help train Filipino soldiers in counterterrorism later this year, said "several men" were detained in connection with the blast. She said she ordered police and the military "to hunt down the bombers and their accomplices."

Davao civil defense spokeswoman Susan Madrid said the airport explosion occurred at 5:20 p.m. (1020 GMT) as scores of people waited for a plane to arrive.

"It was a very, very loud explosion," Terry Labado, an airport official said. "I saw bodies flying."

"We rushed out of the building to see where the explosion happened," she said. "We saw many dead."

An airport security official, who did not want to be identified, said the bomb rocked the front of the terminal building, smashing windows and causing considerable damage.

"It happened ... a few minutes after a Cebu Pacific flight arrived and people packed the waiting area. There were many people killed. I saw six persons killed on the spot," the official said.

Madrid said 19 people were killed and more than 150 were injured. One hospital alone reported 91 casualties.

TV footage showed the waiting stand in front of the terminal building wrecked by the blast, and pieces of metal strewn on the road. The injured included young children.

Two Americans were among the wounded. They were identified as Barbara Stevens, 33, and her 9-month-old son Nathan. They were brought to Davao Doctors Hospital, hospital staff said.

Another American, identified by Davao Medical Center as William Hyde, died of his injuries on the operating table, said Dr. Manuel Tan. The US Embassy confirmed the death of an American but refused to disclose other details.

Stevens said in a telephone interview from the hospital that her family, Southern Baptist missionaries who have been living in the Philippines for five years, had just arrived from Manila when the bomb went off. She said Hyde was waiting to pick them up.

"I just heard it explode to my side," she said. "I was carrying my infant son so I grabbed my daughter and picked her up and ran away. I was afraid there could be more bombs."

She said her son was hit by shrapnel in the liver. Her daughter Sarah was injured but releas. Her husband escaped injuries.

The city's Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered all pharmacies and drug stores to remain open to supply medicine to the victims.

(China Daily March 5, 2003)