TBILISI, September 9 (RIA Novosti) - A plot to bomb the central office of Georgia's ruling party was thwarted last night, the country's interior minister said Saturday.

"We had information about an attack being prepared against one of the offices of the United National Movement," Vano Merabishvili said. "Alexander Chumburidze was detained with explosive devices containing 400 grams of TNT equivalent."

The minister said Chumburidze had earlier worked in Georgia's State Security Ministry, then headed by Igor Giorgadze, and was now a member of the country's opposition Justice party.

In 1995 Georgian authorities charged Giorgadze, who leads the Justice party, with organizing an assassination attempt on then president Eduard Shevardnadze, putting him on an international wanted list.

The Georgian Interior Ministry recently held a large-scale operation to detain Giorgadze and representatives of other opposition parties. Georgian authorities accused them of a conspiracy aiming to overthrow the government. Giorgadze called these arrests "repressions."