Three held in Germany over airport attack plot]

BERLIN, Sep 5 (Reuters) Three men suspected of planning attacks at Frankfurt airport and a US military base in Ramstein have been arrested, a German broadcasting network said today.

The public Suedwestrundfunk (SWR) network reported that the three had been arrested late yesterday in Germany. Quoting security sources in Berlin, it said two of the suspects were German nationals and one had a Pakistani passport.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe, based in the same state as SWR, had no immediate comment. There was also no comment from Frankfurt airport. SWR said that prosecutors were planning to make an announcement later today.

Frankfurt international airport is one of Europe's busiest. The Ramstein base in the nearby state of Rhineland-Palatinate, 130 km southwest of the airport, is one of the most important US air bases overseas.

Germany, which has forces stationed in Afghanistan, has been on high alert for attacks. The country has feared a re-emergence of militant Islamic groups since 2001, when the northern port city of Hamburg was used as a base for the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Earlier this year, federal prosecutors charged a Lebanese man held in detention over an unsuccessful attempt to detonate bombs on two trains in Germany in 2006. He and another suspect were caught on surveillance cameras wheeling suitcases containing bombs aboard trains at Cologne's main railway station.

Both men left suitcases on the trains, which they planned to detonate later in the day with a timed explosive device. Despite being activated, the bombs failed to go off because of a technical error, the prosecutor's office said.

Reuters CS DB1040