WASHINGTON, Oct 21: Anthrax jitters raced around the world on Sunday, as the United States scrambled to determine the scope of a bioterrorist attack that hit cities along its East Coast.

Emergency teams from India to Brazil responded to calls by wary citizens, now inclined to sound an alarm at the sight of suspicious packages or envelopes.

“Anyone who deliberately delivers anthrax is engaged in a crime and an act of terror, a hateful attempt to harm innocent people and frighten our citizens,” US President George W. Bush said on Saturday.

He added, however, that at this time, the US government had no idea who was behind the attempt to spread biological terror.

Fears were heightened by the sight of men dressed in biohazard suits, who emerged from a mail sorting center inside a US congressional building where anthrax spores have been detected.

Further contributing to the unease was an announcement that a letter mailed to a New York newspaper tested positive for the deadly bacteria.

The letter, believed to be responsible for infecting New York Post editorial assistant Johanna Huden, contained the same strain of anthrax — and a similar handwriting — found on the letters mailed earlier to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and US Senate Democratic Majority leader Tom Daschle, authorities said.

Like the two other anthrax-laced missives, the letter was postmarked in Trenton, New Jersey.

But Huden said she noticed the first signs of infection on her finger more than a month ago, in an indication that anthrax mailings may have started at about the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

On Saturday, US Capitol police officials announced that anthrax spores had now been found in a mail bundling machine in the Ford House Office Building.

The discovery has led authorities to order an examination of all congressional buildings, a task that could take several days, jeopardizing plans by congressional leaders to resume legislative business Monday or Tuesday.

Eight people are known to have contracted anthrax in the United States, according to health authorities, while several dozen others have tested positive for the germ.

Caution was the attitude adopted by officials far from US shores.

The editor of a newspaper in violence-torn northeast India immediately called authorities after he received a letter containing a suspicious white powder.

Atin Das, the editor of a Bengali language daily in Silchar, in the northeastern state of Assam, said the letter containing the powder had been preceded by a message from a group called the Islamic Jihad Force in Assam warning him against carrying unfavourable reports about Osama bin Laden in his newspaper.

Bin Laden, a Saudi-born Islamic militant who lives in Afghanistan, is believed to be the chief mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.

Indonesia’s Health Minister Achmad Suyudi called on his country’s populace to remain calm in the face of the anthrax scare, but said he could not guarantee the deadly bacteria would not reach his country.

“I have not received a report on anthrax spores sent by mail, but I cannot say we are not vulnerable because this is a small world,” Suyudi told the Jakarta Post.—AFP