"The degree of coordination including the vehicle placement really reflected a high degree of planning and a high degree of expertise," said Graham Ashton, the federal police officer leading Australian detectives investigating the blast.

Ashton said the aim of the attackers was to maximize casualties.

More than 180 people ¡ª many of them Australians ¡ª were killed in the explosions, which set off a fierce inferno in the popular Sari Club, reducing it to a tangle of girders and charred wood. Many of the young revelers who perished were so badly burned they have not yet been identified.

"Those people who lost their lives at the Sari Club did so very, very quickly, such was the size of the blast," Ashton said.

Blasts outside the neighboring Paddy's Bar and near the US Consulate in Denpasar were caused by bombs made from TNT and likely set off by remote control, Ashton said.

Both Australia and Indonesia have named the terrorist group al-Qaida and the radical Islamic Southeast Asian organization Jemaah Islamiyah as the main suspects in the attack.

Australian investigators believe the blast that devastated the Sari Club in the Balinese town of Kuta was caused by the explosive chlorate and that it was set off by a "booster charge" such as TNT.

He said that 880 pounds of chlorate was stolen in September from a location on Indonesia's main island of Java, but he declined to elaborate on the theft.

The Australian findings differ from those of Indonesians investigating the blasts, who say they have found traces of other explosives at the scene.

Ashton said an "above average level of expertise" was required to build the three bombs that went off Oct. 12 in close succession in Kuta and Bali's capital, Denpasar, and that the bombers likely were experienced.

Ashton also said detectives have painstakingly pieced together 3-D computer images of the devastation to allow experts to continue their investigation.

On Wednesday, Indonesian police released composite sketches of three suspects in the Bali bombings, but have not arrested anyone. They said they are looking for 10 more people suspected of planning the atrocity.

Jemaah Islamiyah's alleged spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, is being held by police in the Indonesian capital Jakarta charged with ordering a string of church bombings.

Bashir denies any involvement in the Bali bombings.

His group's goal is the establishment of an Islamic super-state in Southeast Asia ¡ª encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and southern parts of Thailand and the Philippines.

(China Daily November 6, 2002)