Mohamed Saddiq Howaida, according to yesterday's edition of the independent Daily Nation newspaper, named Bin Laden as the man who sponsored the bombing.

The blasts, which went off almost simultaneously in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on August 7, killed at least 257 people and injured more than 5,000.

The Daily Nation said the 32-year-old Palestinian had confessed to taking part in the bombings, and named Bin Laden, who lives in self-imposed exile in Afghanistan, as the sponsor.

Howaida is said to have given details of a global paramilitary network -- involving about 5,000 militants -- aimed at US interests abroad and orchestrated by the Saudi dissident.

Bin Laden has been a prime suspect in the bombings of the two East African capitals. Only a few weeks ago, he renewed his threat to wage aholy war against the United States and Israel in a bid to liberate Islam's three holy places - Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.

The 41-year-old Saudi financier is a veteran of the Afghan war, having fought against Soviet forces there in the 1980s. After the defeat of the Soviets, Bin Laden and scores of other fighters -- mostly Egyptians, Sudanese and Palestinians -- turned their fire against the United States, which had trained and armed fighters and financed the war, and US-backed regimes in the Middle East.

Based on the information provided by the Palestinian suspect, 15 FBI agents and six Kenyan detectives raided a hotel in Nairobi on Tuesday where Howaida, a Palestinian from Jordan, and his friends had assembled the bomb, made from 800 kg of high explosive TNT.

``Howaida has told the investigators that he was the chief assembler of the bomb and he gave instructions on how the bombing was to be executed,'' said the newspaper, citing unnamed sources.

It said the suspect had confessed that the bomb wasassembled between Aug. 4 and Aug. 6 ``inside two of the hotel's rooms and then taken to a pick up truck outside the hotel for completion''.

Howaida, who was seized at Karachi Airport as he tried to slip into neighbouring Afghanistan with false travel documents, is believed to have had five accomplices, three of whom died in the blast and two others are still at large, according to the newspaper.

US Secretary of State, Madaleine Albright, who is visiting Kenya and Tanzania, on Tuesday said the United States would not give in to ``terrorists''.

``We want to make it clear to everybody that America will not be intimidated by terrorists, and we will do everything we can to bring the perpetrators of the bomb attacks to book,'' she told a press conference after touring Kenyatta National Hospital where most of the victims of the Nairobi blast have been admitted.

Once investigations are over, Howaida will stand trial in Kenya, according to Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister Bonaya Godana. ``The fact that it (thebomb blast) took place here and also many Kenyans suffered, the suspects should be tried in Kenyan courts in accordance with our laws,'' Godana said.

He, however, said ``Kenya is prepared to negotiate with America'' over the issue.

Abright's 10-hour visit to the region, first to Tanzania then Kenya, has been widely seen here as an effort to make amends for America's ``public relations disaster'' over apparent US indifference to Kenyan victims.