Manual used by Bin Laden to train terrorists in US custody

The manual also instructs recruits on how to assemble bombs similar to those that destroyed US embassies in East Africa in 1998, killing more than 200 people, the paper said.

A US federal court has indicted Bin Laden, who lives in Afghanistan, in connection with the embassy attacks. He denies any involvement.

A Jordanian court is due to return its verdict on Monday in the case of 28 alleged followers of Bin Laden who are accused of plotting attacks on US and Israeli targets, judicial sources said in Amman. Sixteen of the suspects were arrested in Jordan last December, while 12 more remain at large.

The suspects, who have pleaded not guilty, are being tried on charges that they planned strikes against US and Israeli targets and other tourist sites during millennium celebrations.

USA Today said that spokesmen for the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) declined to comment but that other intelligence officials described the manual as a "gold mine" of information on Bin Laden’s tactics. They say they hope to use the manual to help slow or disrupt terrorist operations overseas.

The manual, in CD-ROM form, was recently given to the CIA and the FBI’s Washington headquarters by Jordanian intelligence officials, who seized it from one of the 16 men on trial, the newspaper said.

Lt Ziad Hajaya, a computer expert at the Jordanian General Intelligence Department, told a closed military court in Amman last year that one of the seized disks included information on "explosives and manufacturing explosives, toxic and heavy weaponry", USA Today reported, citing court documents.

US officials say they have "positively confirmed" the manual was distributed by Bin Laden in his terrorist camps along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.