The father of the Nigerian man charged with attempting to blow up a transatlantic jet on Christmas Day had warned US officials about his son’s extremist views.

US sources, cited by BBC, confirm Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab was added to the security watch-list known as Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), but say they did not have enough information to allow them to place him on a "no-fly" list. TIDE is said to include more than half a million individuals.

BBC further reports the father recently became concerned about the political views of his son and approached the US embassy in Abuja in November to allert American officials. The father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, is said to be a prominent banker, well-connected in Nigeria's political circles.

In the meantime, Abdulmutallab was formally charged by a US federal judge. The former engineering student at University College London is listed at a Michigan hospital where he is being treated for burns after trying to detonate an explosive aboard the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit Friday.

The detainee reportedly smiled as agents brought him in to the room in a wheelchair.

Preliminary FBI analysis established the device found on Abdulmutallab contained the high explosive PETN or pentaerythritol.

PETN was used by another terrorist - British "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up a Paris-Miami airliner in Christmas week of 2001 and is now serving a jail sentence.

According to the BBC report, the Nigerian had admitted connections to al-Qaeda and revealed he received the explosives in Yemen for a suicide attack, after a month of training.

Eyewitnesses say Abdulmutallab went to the bathroom for about 20 minutes before the incident and when he got back to his seat, he complained of an upset stomach and pulled a blanket over himself.

"Passengers then heard popping noises similar to firecrackers, smelled an odour, and some observed Abdulmutallab's pants, leg and the wall of the airplane on fire," the US Department of Justice explained in an official statement.

The hero of the flight - 32-year-old Dutch filmmaker Jasper Schuringa, who tackled the terrorist, said that when he heard the noise and smelled smoke he felt immediately it was a terrorist attack.

The incident has caused delays to transatlantic flights over the US tightened security. Measures include limiting hand baggage, extra checking of passengers at passport control and allowing more boarding time.

The US Congress is to hold heairngs in January over concerns about airline security and to seek answers to the troubling question of how a man on the TIDE list got on the plane with explosives on his body.

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