Lebanese Canadian held in Cyprus for possessing ammonium nitrate

A 28-year old Canadian citizen of Lebanese descent was remanded in custody over the possession of an unusually large quantity of ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound used for preparing explosives, Cyprus's police said on Thursday.

A police spokesman said almost two tonnes of the chemical was found in the basement of his residence in the southern city of Larnaca.

A police spokesman said the case under investigation is "a very serious one and is being dealt with very carefully by the police", Xinhua news agency reported. He refused to go into details.

The court issued a remand ordering the suspect to remain in police custody for eight days pending investigations.

The court hearing was held behind closed doors -- a very unusual procedure -- after a request by a police investigator who said that "sensitive security issues were involved".

The police spokesman said that the man had been under surveillance since he arrived on the eastern Mediterranean island about a week ago.

He said that a police search in his house revealed 420 boxes containing 67,000 packages of ammonium nitrate.

When asked whether the police had averted a terrorist attack, the spokesman said investigations were still at a very early stage.

Ammonium nitrate is by itself an explosive used in mining and is widely used in improvised explosive devices.