THREE Kenyans charged with planning to blow up the U.S. embassy in Nairobi in a newly disclosed plot were denied bail yesterday pending their trial next year.

Prosecutors have accused the men of plotting to bomb the U.S. embassy between November 2002 and June 2003. They are also charged in the deadly 1998 attack on the U.S. mission in Kenya and two November 2002 attacks in Mombasa -- the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel and an attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner.

The three Kenyans of Arab origin were charged last Friday with four counts of conspiracy. ?I conclude that releasing them on bail would be against security interests therefore they will remain in custody until their trial on January 6,? Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule said in a brief hearing. ?Terrorism is a recent phenomenon that Kenya?s criminal law did not envisage. The court runs the risk that the accused persons may not return to court if they are released on bail.?

Kenyans are currently debating an anti-terrorism bill which has been severely criticised by the Muslim community for being discriminatory. A main office block in Nairobi was evacuated on Tuesday after the United States warned of threats against Western interests in the Kenyan capital, advising its citizens to stay away from the city centre in the next few days.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said the threats mentioned the Stanley and Hilton hotels ? not far from the former site of the U.S. embassy, devastated in a suicide bombing that killed 214 people five years ago.

Security officials say the new embassy ? built in an isolated plot after the attack ? was the target of a plot in June involving an explosives-packed truck and hijacked plane. The U.S. mission was shut for several days that month due to what officials called a serious terrorist threat.