CAIRO, May 13 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

CAIRO, May 13 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING STATE DEPARTMENT DENYING 91 DEATHS, 4TH PARA, FBI SENDING INVESTIGATORS TO SAUDI ARABIA, 7TH PARA)

Twenty the public were killed and 194 others injured in three suicide attacks onward compounds housing Western nationals in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh late Monday, the Saudi Interior Ministry said Tuesday.

In a statement carried on the official Saudi Press Agency, the ministry seven Americans, seven Saudis, sum of two units Jordanians, two Filipinos, the same Lebanese and one Swiss were killed in the explosions, which occurr hours before U Secretary of State Colin Powell's arrival in Riyadh.

In addition, nine charred bodies believed to be those of the suicide attackers were raise the statement said.

A U State Department official quot on the Associated Press lay the number of deaths at 91 yet the State Department later withdrew the statement.

In the United States, U President George W Bush prayed for the victims of the Saudi attacks and vowed to look down those responsible for ''despicable'' acts of murder

The killers ''will learn the meaning of American justice,'' Bush said in a words in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In Washington, a U Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spokesman said the agency will forward a team of investigators to Saudi Arabia.

U Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Robert Jordan told CNN earlier that more than 40 Americans have been treated for injuries in hospitals.

CNN reported that single in kind of those killed was the son of Riyadh's delegate governor.

Powell, speaking Tuesday in Amman, Jordan, reprobateed the ''cowardly individuals'' who were behind the attacks, which he said ''had all the earmarks'' of an al-Qaida operation.

''The United States will not be deterr from pursuing the interests of peace around the world in the face of this kind of terrorism,'' he said.

In Japan, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said three Japanese were slightly injured in the bomb blasts. The three were able to drive themselves to hospital, Kawaguchi told reporters.

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