Lebanon spy agency led Germans to bombmaker

BERLIN, Aug 21 (Reuters) Lebanon's military intelligence agency gave German authorities information that led to the arrest of a Lebanese man the Germans suspect planted suitcase bombs at two train stations, German prosecutors said today.

''The decisive tipoff about the arrested suspect came on Friday evening from the military intelligence agency in Lebanon,'' said Frauke-Katrin Scheuten, spokeswoman for the German Federal Prosecutors office.

On Saturday, German police detained one of two men they suspect came close to exploding makeshift bombs on two trains in the cities of Dortmund and Koblenz last month. Police are still searching for the other man.

They were caught on video cameras in Cologne train station, dragging the suitcases which contained the explosive devices onto the trains.

Monika Harms, the federal prosecutor, told reporters over the weekend that the man who police nabbed in the northern city of Kiel was a 21-year-old Lebanese student who had been living in Germany for two years.

German ARD public television reported that the information came from a tapped telephone conversation. Without naming its sources, ARD said the student had seen his picture on German television and called his family in Lebanon for advice.

This conversation was recorded by the Lebanese and its contents were passed on to German authorities who then arrested the man, ARD said.

Police have said the bombs -- made with propane tanks, gasoline bottles and crude detonating devices -- may have been part of a plot designed to show anger over the W Asia crisis.

REUTERS MS PC2328