Producers say the series will be similar to Traffic

It will be based on the book American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing, written by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck after 75 hours of interviews with the bomber.

A CBS spokesman confirmed its plans with BBC News Online, saying: "We have optioned the book on McVeigh and it is in development at CBS."

McVeigh was killed by lethal injection on Monday, the first execution by the federal government in almost 40 years.

Producer Gerry Abrams told Variety magazine that the series would not just be about McVeigh, but also about the others affected by the bombing of the Alfred P Murrah federal building.

"When I read the book, I was left feeling that because so much attention had been devoted to McVeigh, that the public was unaware of so many individual acts of heroism from people involved," he said.

168 people died in the 1995 bombing

It will have a similar feel to the film Traffic, which starred Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, he said.

"The mini-series we want to make will follow the template of Traffic, where seemingly unrelated people are involved in a common crisis."

The heroes include the policeman who arrested McVeigh an hour after the bombing for the minor offence of not having a registration plate on his car.

He was 20 minutes from releasing him when he made the connection to the Oklahoma atrocity.

Mr Abrams said the last thing he wanted to do was to "further McVeigh's legacy".

But the story of McVeigh's transition from an all-American boy to a mass-terrorist will be covered.

McVeigh's attack was the worst-ever peacetime attack on US soil, leaving more than 800 people injured.