Lieutenant General Carter Ham, director of operations of the Joint Staff, said a Patriot missile unit at Camp As-Saliyah in Qatar was conducting a training exercise when the missile accidentally went off.

"Don't know why or how the missile advertently launched, but it did," he told reporters here.

"The preliminary indications are that it did as it was expected to do: it self-destructed. The debris is about three or four miles from the launch site. it's secure."

Ham said the government of Qatar, US forces and the US embassy were investigating the incident.

"We're very happy that nobody was injured in the incident," he said.

Earlier, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the missile landed in an unpopulated farm area.

Qatar, a member of the pro-Western Gulf Cooperation Council, hosts the US army's Central Command which directed the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

The Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system used by the US military and several of its allies, including Israel.

The US military has two bases in Qatar, As-Sailiyah and Al-Udeid, which is located in the desert further south of the capital.

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