British anti-terror police said today they had charged a man with conspiring with convicted "shoebomber" Richard Reid to carry out bomb attacks in Britain or elsewhere in the world.
Mr Sajid Badat (24) who was arrested at his home in the southwestern town of Gloucester last week, also faces two other charges of possessing explosives. He is due to appear in court in London tomorrow.
Reid, a follower of Osama bin Laden, was jailed for life in January in the United States after admitting to trying to blow up a transatlantic airliner using explosives hidden in his shoe.
Two weeks ago, British security services were put on their second highest alert after intelligence officials said they had information an attack was planned.
It followed numerous warnings from the government and security chiefs that Britain, Washington's closest ally in the "war on terror", was a prime target for would-be attackers.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that Britons were under threat while the country's top policeman Sir John Stevens has cautioned that an attack in Britain was almost inevitable.