US informant says he stockpiled weapons for London bombs

LONDON - A US informant, said by prosecutors to be an accomplice of seven Britons accused of planning bomb attacks, told a London court on Monday he had stockpiled weaponry and ingredients for the deadly poison ricin.

Mohammed Babar, 31, a Pakistan-born American who has admitted terrorism-related offences in the United States, said he had kept bomb-making material and detonators at his home in Lahore, Pakistan, which he intended to smuggle into Britain.

Babar is the key prosecution witness against the Britons, accused of planning to use ammonium nitrate fertiliser to make bombs for attacks on possible targets such as pubs and clubs.

London's Old Bailey criminal court has heard from prosecutors that the men were almost ready to launch attacks when they were arrested.

Babar has admitted in closed US hearings trying to acquire the ingredients for what American authorities call "the British bomb plot", the court was told.

He has been described as the men's accomplice but was granted immunity against prosecution in Britain following his guilty plea in the United States.

Babar told the court on Monday the detonators were brought to his apartment in June 2003 to be taken to "Europe or the UK" and were stored in a closet with a fan used to keep them from exploding.

Asked what else was kept in the closet Babar replied: "Ammonium nitrate, aluminium powder, ricin, the propane stove, urea - instead of using ammonium nitrate you can use urea to make a bomb too." He said the "ricin beans" had been brought from Islamabad. The chemical weapon ricin is made from castor beans.

"There were times when something came about like poisoning water supplies and stuff like that or poisoning people," he said.

The seven Britons are accused of conspiring with a Canadian man to cause an explosion "likely to endanger life".

Three of them are also charged with possessing 600 kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser - sometimes used to make bombs - for suspected terrorism purposes.

Two are also accused of possessing aluminium powder. The trial continues.

- REUTERS