Friday, June 23 2006 12:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: US federal agents arrested several people in a raid to break up an alleged terrorist plot based in Miami, Florida, FBI Director Robert Mueller said.

"We do have an ongoing operation in Miami," he told the Cable News Network (CNN) late Thursday.

Mueller said that agents had made 'a number of arrests and searches'.

Documents were seized in the raid but apparently no weapons or bomb-making materials, sources said. The network described it as an investigation of domestic terrorism with no apparent foreign component.

Seven people were taken into custody, including five US citizens and two foreigners, one of whom was in the country illegally.

The group had reportedly considered targets including the Sears Tower in Chicago and federal courthouses in Florida. It was not clear if they had any means to carry out bombings or other attacks.

The suspects were described as members of an African-American Muslim sect with militant leanings.

Television footage showed a warehouse in Miami's impoverished Liberty City neighbourhood with several vehicles and numerous armed federal agents apparently conducting a search.

"A statement by federal prosecutors described it as a 'terrorism-related matter'," sources said.