Attorney General Janet Reno announces the charges

The US Attorney General, Janet Reno, said investigators would not rest until Rudolph was brought to justice.

"Eric Rudolph is on the run. Hundreds of agents are on his trail. They have spent thousands of hours pursuing leads, interviewing witnesses and tracing the components of each of the bombs," she said.

"Without their efforts, these charges would not have been possible."

David Sillitoe: "A $1m reward has been offered for Rudolph's capture"

The pipe-bomb at the Atlanta Games exploded in the Centennial Olympic Park, killing one woman and injuring more than 100.

Investigators have now pieced together a technical and circumstantial case linking Mr Rudolph to the bombing.

Eric Robert Rudolph: on the FBI's top ten wanted list

A Tennessee couple have identified Eric Rudolph as the man to whom they sold smokeless powder, believed to have been used in the Olympic Games device.

Mr Rudolph is also wanted by the FBI in connection with three other bombings.

He has already been charged in connection with the bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, in January1998, in which a police officer was killed and a nurse critically wounded.

Investigators are offering a $1m reward for his arrest.

Paul Reynolds reports from Washington

The announcement of the charges will intensify the search for Mr Rudolph, who was last seen in the mountains of North Carolina in the summer of 1998.

It will also finally vindicate the reputation of Richard Jewell, the security guard who was on the scene of the Atlanta bomb and raised the alarm.