PARIS, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- The French government appeared to be backtracking Thursday from suggestions earlier this week that a biological or chemical attack may have been foiled, as laboratory tests of materials seized in police raids yielded no conclusive evidence.
On Tuesday, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told the National Assembly that police had seized empty containers and vials of suspicious-looking fluids and powders, as well as a jumpsuit apparently designed to protect from a biological or chemical attack.
Three North African men arrested as part of the Monday morning raid at the Paris suburb of La Courneuve, and thousands of dollars in cash and false documents were seized. The suspects remain in police custody.
But laboratory tests found two of the suspicious substances did not include the elements for a chemical attack -- although both contained traces of an iron-based material that might be used to make a regular explosive, French media reports said.
The products are apparently widely available in ordinary stores.
Investigators have also found electronic devices, which could be used in fabricating an explosive, stashed in a washing machine at the site, Le Parisien newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, LCI television reported the suspects have confessed to plotting a strike against public sites as part of a jihad. According to French media reports, the suspects trained in Afghanistan and Chechnya, and maintain ties with terrorist cells and top leaders in Europe, including Britain and Germany.
This week's arrests are the latest in a slew of round-ups that have taken place in Europe, since September 2001.
In France, they include recent linked to Nizar Nawar, an alleged al Qaida member believed to have staged a suicide attack on a historic Tunisian synagogue. At least two of Nawar's relatives in France have been charged with aiding in a terrorist operation.
French authorities are particularly fearful of attacks on public water supplies, and on the country's nuclear energy sites.
On Wednesday, however, a Dutch court freed four men suspected of plotting to blow up the United States embassy in Paris, judging evidence against them insufficient.
Among them was Frenchman Jerome Courtailler, a convert to Islam and alleged ringleader of the group.
