Iraq's charge d'affaires Abdullah Jaburi was called to the foreign ministry and informed of the order against Nazem Jawad to leave, the state-run Bahrain News Agency said, quoting a ministry spokesman.

A Bahraini official also announced the arrest of another Iraqi national, Uday Abdul Amir Hassun, who he said had "admitted his responsibility in the attack".

"Hassun, who has worked for less than a year for a Bahraini company, also admitted that it was the first secretary of the Iraqi embassy who recruited him" to carry out the March 24 attack near the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, the official said.

The explosion 250 meters (yards) from the Al-Jufair naval base, east of the capital Manama, shattered nearby windows but did not claim any casualties.

Reports at the time said a gas bottle left in a dustbin had caused the blast but the Bahraini official, who requested anonymity, said an explosive charge had set it off.

The ministry spokesman said the first secretary was in contact with Hasnun and "has carried out activities which are incompatible with his diplomatic work."

Washington has called for Iraqi diplomats to be kicked out around the world and many nations have obliged, including Jordan, but Bahrain was the first to take action in the Gulf.

Egypt Wednesday denied that it had forced the first secretary at Iraq's embassy to leave Cairo as reported by Iraqi satellite television, but diplomatic sources in Amman said Tuesday Jordan had expelled three Iraqi diplomats over an alleged plot to poison the water supply of US troops in the country.

The United States announced on March 20 as it unleashed cruise missiles on Baghdad that it had formally asked governments worldwide to shut down Iraqi embassies and diplomatic missions until new authorities were in power in Baghdad.

Most of the 5,000 Americans residing in Bahrain, declared a major non-NATO ally by Washington last year, are military personnel with the Fifth Fleet. Some 3,000 military personnel and dependents live in Al-Jufair.

Bahrainis have repeatedly held anti-war protests and clashed with police outside the US embassy in Manama since the United States launched its military campaign against Iraq. The embassy has since been closed.

US military personnel have been stationed here since Manama, which currently chairs the Arab League, signed an agreement with Washington in the early 1970s granting the US Navy facilities at the base.

However, that did not stop Bahrain's King Hamad from offering asylum to Saddam Hussein just hours before the expiry of a US ultimatum for the Iraqi leader to quit or face war.

SPACE.WIRE