BEIRUT, Lebanon - Nearly six months after feverish search by U.S. and European intelligence agencies for lethal "liquid explosives" Lebanese police confiscated the first batch of such deadly weapons, sources said.

One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said each of the 31 confiscated explosive devices is made up of two tubes filled with blue liquid, fitted on a board and connected to a timer-detonator.

A police communiqué said a squad of its intelligence branch carried out a "swift operation during which it confiscated 31 explosive sets."

The communiqué said the confiscated sets included "sophisticated electro-chemical timers-detonators that can be timed to explode after as late as 124 days."

The sets were confiscated in an area "in the vicinity" of the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern port city of Sidon, 45 kilometers from Beirut, the communiqué said.

The sets were to be "smuggled and used in terrorist acts," the communiqué added.

The source, however, told Naharnet the sets were busted nearly 12 days ago in the Sikkeh district of ain el-Hilweh in a "daring, swift and clean raid."

The sets, according to the source, were "assembled and awaiting a squad to smuggle them to another location. Police, apparently, postponed issuing a communiqué on the bust in an effort to tail members of what is believed to be a major network of terrorists operating between various sectors of Lebanon".

He said material used in the sets is of an "eastern European origin." He refused to elaborate.

British, U.S. and European Union intelligence agencies have been searching since August for the lethal liquid explosives after London said in unveiled a scheme to blow up passenger aircraft on flights across the Atlantic.

Stringent security measures have been applied at almost all western airports, banning air passengers from carrying any liquids, even food for infants.

The Lebanese police operation was the first ever reported bust of liquid explosives in the world. -Naharnet