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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A mail processing facility on the grounds of the US Central Intelligence compound in Langley, Virginia, was closed on Friday for testing and cleaning after test results returned on Thursday confirmed there was a "trace amount" of anthrax in the building.

"I can't tell you how much is there," US Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said of the CIA case.

"Preliminary determination is that it is medically insignificant, but we're trying to test it to make sure that that's an accurate conclusion," Ridge said on Friday in an interview on NBC's "Today" program. Ridge said so far there had been no suspicious letter or package found at the CIA facility.

"Clearly we are up against a shadow enemy, shadow soldiers, people who have no regard for human life," Ridge said on Thursday in an earlier interview. "It is clear the terrorists responsible for these attacks intended to use this anthrax as a weapon."

However, investigators appear no nearer to pinpointing the source of the bacteria that has killed 3 people, made at least 11 others sick, and forced thousands of people to be tested or treated.

The anthrax threat has also touched the White House, Congress and the State Department, further weakening Americans' sense of security following plane strikes on New York and Washington that killed about 5,000 people on September 11th.

The Bush administration has said the spate of anthrax cases could be linked to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, whom it blames for the plane attacks, but so far has no firm evidence.

In a separate interview on Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Ridge said investigators were trying to determine why anthrax is turning up in locations where no suspicious mail has been found.

"The Department of Justice, the FBI, the Secret Service are trying very, very hard to determine whether or not there are other letters in the system that are contaminating these rooms," Ridge said.

Traces of anthrax also have been detected at New York's largest mail distribution center, in the first instance of the potentially lethal bacteria being detected at a postal facility in the city, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The newspaper said tests found anthrax contamination in four high-speed sorting machines at the center in the latest case in the expanding threat of the rare disease that has been spread with letters carrying the potentially deadly spores.

According to the Times, postal authorities said the machines had been contaminated by anthrax-laced letters that might have been sent from Trenton, New Jersey, and then delivered to the NBC television network and The New York Post tabloid newspaper.