FBI agents arrested Khalid Ali M. Aldawsari, who arrived in the US in 2008 on a student visa, in Texas on Wednesday.

Saudi diplomatic sources in the US, when contacted by Arab News, said that they had “just found out about the arrest”.

The sources said that neither the embassy nor the consulates in the US had been notified officially by anyone of the arrest. But a lawyer was trying to gather more information.

Aldawsari was accused of purchasing chemicals and equipment to make an improvised explosive device, news agencies quoted the US Justice Department as saying.

The FBI received a report on Feb. 1 from a chemical supplier about an attempt by Aldawsari to buy concentrated phenol, which has legitimate uses but can also be used to make the explosive trinitrophenol, known as picric acid, according to Reuters.

The shipment was sent to a freight company but the firm returned it to the supplier and called the police, the Justice Department said.

Aldawsari told the supplier he was connected to a university and was doing “off-campus, personal research”.

He was accused of making lists of targets that included nuclear power plants and one e-mail included the Dallas address of Bush.

If convicted, Aldawsari faces up to life in prison. A Justice Department official, quoted by Reuters, said there was no evidence the suspect was part of a militant group and he apparently was acting alone. Aldawsari, attending college near Lubbock, Texas, was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Aldawsari is expected to appear in a federal court in Lubbock on Friday morning, Associated Press reported.