At least one car bomb went off at a residential compound in the east of the Saudi capital housing mainly US and other Western nationals, witnesses said.

They said ambulances were seen ferrying the wounded out of the Al-Hamra compound on the road to the city's airport, and hospital sources reported receiving many injured.

Gunfire was heard before the blast in the compound went off, they said.

A Saudi Arabian hospital official said at least 60 people were injured in the attack on the Riyadh compound.

American officials initially suspected the Al-Qaeda terrorist network for the attacks.

Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born fugitive who heads the Al-Qaeda network, and home to 15 of the 19 Sept 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack hijackers.

Last week, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that most of the 5,000 US troops in Saudi Arabia would leave by the end of the summer. The presence of the troops has been a major irritant to the kingdom's rulers, who face strong anti-American sentiment from the population.

Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite news channel reported that a number of charred bodies were transferred to hospital.

The blasts came on the eve of a planned visit to Riyadh by US Secretary of State Colin Powell who is now in Jordan as part of a tour of the Middle East.

Powell is scheduled to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks with leaders of the oil-rich kingdom. He is asking the Saudis for their help in harnessing militant groups and in promoting Palestinian reform. He has already been in Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.

(People’s Daily May 13, 2003)