Three detained at Miami port entry

MIAMI, Jan 8 (Reuters) Police detained the driver of a long-haul truck and two men found inside at a security stop at the Port of Miami, a leading US cargo and cruise-ship gateway, authorities said.

The incident raised U.S. terrorism fears less than a year after a political furor about the security of US ports but government authorities in Miami said the truck carried only industrial cargo and had posed no threat.

The three men were taken into custody after security staff at a delivery gate grew suspicious of the driver, searched the cab of his truck and found two other men, said Lt. Nancy Goldberg of the Miami-Dade County Police Department.

Two, including the 20-year-old driver, were Iraqi nationals, and the third man was a Lebanese national, and all three were legal residents of the United States, Goldberg said at a televised news conference at the port.

Port operations in Miami, including festive departures by cruise ships for Caribbean holidays, were largely unaffected as federal, maritime and local officials responded in large numbers, Goldberg said.

There were no signs the incident was terrorism related and US port security had not been changed in response, US Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke in Washington said.

The three men were being questioned by federal authorities late yesterday, Goldberg said. She declined to identify them.

The security guard's suspicions were initially aroused when the guard came upon two passengers in the cab of the truck after being told by the driver he was alone, Goldberg said.

''There was some sort of miscommunication,'' Goldberg said.

The driver did not appear to be able to specify the contents of the truck and one of the men had no personal identification papers, further stirring suspicions, she said.

Authorities said the truck, a blue 18-wheeler, was found to be carrying electronic automotive parts. It has been X-rayed, tested electronically for signs of radioactivity, and was being unloaded for physical inspections.

The truck's load matched its manifest, authorities said.

Last year, Dubai Ports World of Dubai acquired a stake in the Miami port as part of a broader ports deal that caused political uproar. The firm last month agreed to sell its US operations to American International Group Inc.

The firm's facilities at the Port of Miami and other US ports were expected to remain formally under DP World ownership for about another month, a DP World spokesman said. But the terminals have not been managed by DP World since early last year, according to the DP World spokesman.

The Port of Miami is a major shipping venue that hosted 3.6 million cruise passengers in 2005, REUTERS DKS PM0553