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A Nigerian man who said he was an agent for al-Qaida tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day as it was preparing to land in Detroit, but travelers who smelled smoke and heard what sounded like firecrackers rushed to subdue him, the passengers and federal officials said.

Flight 253 with 278 passengers and 11 crew members aboard was about 20 minutes from Detroit''s airport on Friday when passengers heard popping noises, witnesses said.

At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to the front of the plane with his trousers cut off and his legs burned, a passenger said.

One US intelligence official said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it.

The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of "terrorism" and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. It did not specify what those were.

The incident was reminiscent of Richard Reid, who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, but was subdued by other passengers. Reid is serving a life sentence.

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect in Friday''s attempted attack as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab.

One law enforcement official said the man claimed to have been instructed by al-Qaida to detonate the plane over US soil.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.

The man was being questioned on Friday evening. An intelligence official said the Nigerian passenger was being held and treated in an Ann Arbor, Michigan, hospital.

One passenger was taken to the University of Michigan Medical Centre in Ann Arbor, a hospital spokeswoman said.

She referred all inquiries to the FBI. The trauma burn center at the hospital said it did not have Abdul Mutallab in its unit.

Flight 253 began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit, said Rep. Peter King, the ranking Republican member of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee.

A spokeswoman for police at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam declined comment about the case or about security procedures at the airport for Flight 253.

Schiphol airport, one of Europe''s busiest with a heavy load of transit passengers from Africa and Asia to North America, strictly enforces European security regulations including only allowing small amounts of liquid in hand luggage that must be placed inside clear plastic bags.

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the flight until it was on final approach to Detroit, said a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman.

Delta Air Lines Inc., which bought Northwest last year, said the passenger was subdued immediately and the crew asked that law enforcement officials meet the flight.

One woman waiting for her husband to arrive on the flight described seeing the suspect in police custody.

"His hands were wrapped in bandages and he was handcuffed to the railing of the bed," Dawn Griffith said.

President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, the White House said. It said he is monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot in Hawaii.

Federal officials said there would be heightened security for both domestic and international flights at airports across the country, but the intensified levels would likely be "layered," differing from location to location depending on alerts, security concerns and other factors.

Passengers can expect to see heightened screening, more bomb-sniffing dog and officer units and behavioural-detection specialists at some airports, but there will also be unspecified less visible precautions as well, officials said.

The FBI and the Homeland Security Department issued an intelligence note on November 20 about the threat picture for the holiday season, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

At the time, officials said they had no specific information about attack plans by al-Qaida or other militant groups.

In 2003, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden purportedly marked Nigeria for liberation in a recording posted on the Internet, calling on Muslims in the oil-rich country to rise up against one of the "regimes who are slaves of America."

But links to al-Qaida remained rare, though security forces claimed to break up such a linked cell in November 2007.