Explosives found on French rail line

PARIS -- A French railroad worker found an explosive device buried in the bed of a passenger line between France and Switzerland Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.\nBomb disposal experts neutralized the device, which was half-buried under a track in the village of Montieramey, France, on a train line heading from Paris to Basel, Switzerland, about 105 miles southeast of Paris, the ministry said in a statement. It was discovered shortly after noon.\nThere was no immediate claim of responsibility.\nThe Interior Ministry said the device did not resemble bombs described in threats by a previously unknown group calling itself AZF. An Interior Ministry official said later it was not immediately clear whether the device was capable of exploding.\nThe group claimed to have planted nine bombs along the country's rail network and has threatened to explode them unless it is paid millions of dollars.\nPolice, terrorism experts and intelligence officials held a crisis meeting at the Interior Ministry.\nAbout 10,000 maintenance workers inspected thousands of miles of track after the government publicized the first set of threats early this month.\nThe state-run train authority said Wednesday it was undertaking a massive new inspection, starting with tracks carrying passengers and hazardous freight.\nFrance has been on a higher terror alert since the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, Spain, killing 190 people. Those bombings prompted the tightening of security on train lines around the world, including in France, Greece and Poland.\nIn the United States, Amtrak increased police patrols and intensified electronic surveillance of bridges and tunnels, a spokesman said. Major cities, including New York and Washington D.C., also boosted security on their subway systems.\nSuspicion for the Spain attacks has focused on an alleged Morocco-based terrorist cell believed to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and on al Qaeda itself.\nThe device, found at 12:35 p.m Wednesday, was in a clear plastic box measuring about 8 inches by 8 inches, the statement said.\nThe box contained nitrate fuel and a flat battery linked to seven detonators and a handmade timing device, the ministry said. The device was being examined at the police laboratory, the statement said.\nAZF's threats, first disclosed earlier this month, appeared in at least three letters sent to the offices of President Jacques Chirac and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy Dec. 10, Feb. 13 and Feb. 17.\nThe letters, demanding $5.2 million, threatened railway targets.\nInformation from the group led to the Feb. 21 recovery of a sophisticated explosive device buried in tracks near Limoges in central France.\nTests showed the Limoges bomb was powerful enough to rupture the track, the government said then. It was made from a mixture of diesel fuel and nitrates and had a sophisticated detonator, judicial officials said.\nAZF is not the only previously unknown group issuing threats to France.\nLast week, two newspapers received letters addressed to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and signed by the "Servants of Allah the Powerful and Wise." That group also was not previously known to French intelligence officials.\nThe letters threatened possible terror attacks against France and French interests to punish the country for banning Islamic headscarves in public schools beginning next school year.\nFrench embassies in Muslim countries around the world received the same letters, officials said Tuesday.\nInterior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has said the letters do not resemble typical messages by Islamic extremist groups.