Al Qaeda's London bomb plot

A man has confessed to being part of an alleged al Qaeda plot to blow up targets in London.

Mohammed Junaid Babar, 29, was arrested by US authorities over the alleged plan to destroy pubs, restaurants and railway stations.

He is said to have admitted his part in the plot during a closed hearing in New York. Babar, a Pakistani-born US citizen, has not been publicly charged.

But law enforcement officials who spoke to the Associated Press news agency said he pleaded guilty and had been co-operating with investigators. He faces a lengthy prison term, they added.

Officials said Babar's plot was thwarted in March when Scotland Yard's antiterrorist branch seized 600kg of ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser that can be used in bombs.

Six men and a teenager have been charged with terrorism offences. A Canadian man was also held. US officials are known to have watched Babar after remarks he made to a Canadian TV

reporter in Pakistan following the September 11 attacks.

Although his mother escaped from the World Trade Center, Babar is claimed to have said he was planning to join the Taliban, adding: "I'm willing to kill Americans". At some point he is alleged to have made contact with the men in London.

Babar, who lived in New York, was arrested in April. Since then, he has been held in secret at prison in Manhattan.