A prominent journalist working for an anti-Syrian television station has been seriously wounded after a bomb placed under her car exploded, Lebanese security officials say.

The officials said May Chidiac, who works for the private Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, was inside her car when the bomb exploded on Sunday in the Christian port city of Jounieh, north of Beirut.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Chidiac was injured and taken to hospital.

LBC, in a news flash, said the bomb was planted under the driver's seat of Chidiac's Range Rover and exploded as soon as she started the car.

The station said Chidiac, a longtime news anchor, was in critical condition and that her arms and one of her legs were amputated.

The front part of her car was burned and the car severely damaged, LBC reported.

Political talkshow host

Chidiac is one of several hosts of a daily political talkshow at the station, which broadcasts in Lebanon and is widely seen in the Arab world and by Lebanese communities across the world.

Chidiac was hosting the show on Sunday morning with a political analyst from the leading An-Nahar newspaper.

LBC, a Christian TV station, is among the most prominent of anti-Syrian media outlets.

A series of bombings have occurred in the Lebanese capital since a massive bomb killed former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri and 20 other people on 14 February.

Opponents of Syria's role in Lebanon have accused Damascus and its allies in the Lebanese security services of involvement in the killing of al-Hariri and the spate of bombings that followed.

PHOTO CAPTION

Lebanese army soldiers guard the damaged car of May Chidiac, a Lebanese political talk show host, after a bomb placed under her car exploded in the town of Ghadir, near the Christian port city of Jounieh, in northern Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2005. (AP)