Reid's contact with 20th hijacker

Shoe bomber Richard Reid made a series of phone calls to "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui when they lived in Britain, it was reported today.

The men's calls were intercepted by British security agents, US law enforcement officials told the Washington Times.

Reid is accused of trying to blow up an American passenger jet with explosives in his shoes. Moussaoui, a Moroccan-born Frenchman, was formally charged yesterday for his part in the 11 September attacks.

US security sources told the Washington Times that several calls between the two were intercepted by British intelligence last year. The men worshipped at the same Brixton mosque in the late Nineties, but until now there has been no proof that they met. The calls are said to have ended in December 2000 when Moussaoui left London for Pakistan.

US authorities believe Moussaoui, 33, who could face the death penalty at his trial, then crossed into Afghanistan to train at a camp run by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.

Several al Qaeda members captured by the Americans claim to recognise Reid, 28, from photographs, suggesting that the two may have trained together.

Moussaoui was being monitored by British intelligence while living as a student in London, but agents were apparently unable to identify Reid from their phone calls.

The Briton is being held in Boston after passengers and crew on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Boston last month overpowered him as he tried to light a fuse in his trainers. Experts say there was enough explosive in the shoes to blow a hole in the Boeing 767, causing rapid decompression and possibly igniting the aircraft's fuel tanks.

Reid, who has an English mother and Jamaican father, has claimed under interrogation that he acted alone, but the FBI doubts he has the expertise to make such a sophisticated device. He has a string of convictions for petty offences and converted to Islam while in prison. Moussaoui has refused to answer charges, but a formal plea of not guilty was entered.

Scotland Yard confirmed it had been helping the FBI track Reid's movements and accomplices, including Moussaoui, while he was in Britain.

A spokesman said: "The anti-terrorist branch is liaising with the FBI and we are making enquiries."

Moussaoui's mother said today she feared her son would become a scapegoat. Aicha el-Wafi said in Paris after returning from the US: "I don't want my son to be used as a scapegoat for the pain and suffering of the American people."