Blast at Nigerian govt HQ after militant warning

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Dec 23 (Reuters) An explosion occurred today near the headquarters of Rivers State government in Nigeria's oil capital Port Harcourt moments after militants said they were about to detonate two car bombs in the region, a state government spokesman said.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which is fighting for regional autonomy of Nigeria's oil producing south, had earlier said in an email to media it planted explosives in two cars at locations of strategic importance in the Niger Delta.

''This afternoon there was an explosion near government house Port Harcourt. It was very serious, but we are yet to ascertain the extent of the damage,'' spokesman Blessing Nwikina said.

He did not have information on any casualties.

Two car bombings by the same group at oil company compounds in Port Harcourt on Monday prompted two European oil companies to evacuate hundreds of dependents of staff from the region.

Attacks on oil facilities and kidnappings of foreign workers has become an almost weekly occurrence in the world's eighth largest oil exporter. A series of attacks by MEND in February forced Royal Dutch Shell to pull hundreds of workers out of the western delta and cut Nigerian oil output by a fifth.

The MEND is also holding three Italians and one Lebanese oil workers hostage after a raid on an Italian-run oil export terminal at Brass in Bayelsa state on December 7.

REUTERS LL RN1858