MIAMI -- A longtime South Florida television meteorologist was arrested on charges he used a computer to arrange a sexual liaison with someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy, federal agents said Monday.

Law enforcement officials said WSVN Channel 7 weatherman Bill Kamal was taken into custody by the Leach Task Force -- law enforcement against child harm -- in St. Lucie County on Sunday.

According to a news release from the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office, the 47-year-old thought he was meeting a 14-year-old boy he met over the internet. Instead, he was met by an undercover officer.

The investigation began Oct. 18 when the detective, posing as a child in an Internet chat room, received an instant message from a screen name identified later as Kamal.

Following a series of instant messages, e-mails and telephone calls between Kamal and the detective, Kamal told the "child" he would come to St. Lucie County Sunday to meet him.

Kamal was being held on $200,000 bond St. Lucie County jail, said sheriff's spokesman Mark Weinberg.

No information on Kamal's lawyer was immediately available. He faces one to five years in prison if convicted of the third-degree felony.

According to arrest documents in the case, investigators interviewed Kamal at St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office following his arrest.

During the interview, Kamal admitted he traveled to St. Lucie County to meet a person he thought was a 14-year-old boy, according to the arrest affidavit.

In the interview, Kamal said he did not intend to have sex with the child but wanted to give the child love and "be a father to him," the arrest affidavit said.

Kamal has been a weatherman with Channel 7 for 10 years. He was fired after the arrest, said Robert W. Leider, the station's executive vice president and general manager.

NBC 6 contacted Channel 7 for comment, but according to the community relations director, "it is not station policy to react to personal issues with staff."