LAGOS, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria has formally protested to the U.S. decision to including the west African country in the list of terror nations.

The U.S. decision came after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year old Nigerian, attempted to blow up a jetliner as it approached Detroit after a flight from Amsterdam but failed on Christmas Day.

The Nigerian protest came as the U.S. government has released a list of 14 countries, namely Nigeria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Cuba , Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Sudan with directives that passengers traveling from these countries to the United States by air face extra security screening.

"Listing Nigeria on the second tier of countries that are on the radar of security measures to the United States is an unacceptable New Year gift to a friendly country like Nigeria," the country's minister of foreign affairs Ojo Maduekwe told reporters in Abuja after a closed-door meeting with U.S Ambassador to Nigeria Robin Sanders.

"We detect some double standards here," he said.

The U.S. government has said from Jan. 4, it would begin enhanced screening procedures on any U.S.-bound air passenger travelling through state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest such as Pakistan, Yemen and Nigeria.

"What Farouk (Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab) attempted to do is not different from what the shoe bomber did in 2001 and yet his country was not put on the security list," the minister stressed.

Maduekwe who described the inclusion as counter-productive, said Nigeria wants to be off that list.

He said it is in the interest of both countries (Nigeria and the United States) to sustain the existing cordial relationships.

Maduekwe told reporters that the U.S. envoy promised to convey Nigeria's position to his government.

Abdulmutallab is accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines Airbus as it made its descent to Detroit on Dec. 25, 2009from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

He is alleged to have boarded a plane at the Lagos Murtala Muhamed International Airport, and transferred onto a trans- Atlantic flight at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands.