The man facing execution for his role in the September 11 attacks on the US has said he was supposed to fly a plane into the White House as part of the plot.
Taking the stand at his sentencing trial, Zacarias Moussaoui - the only person charged in the United States in connection with the attacks - said "shoebomber" Richard Reid was to join him as part of the crew in the suicide mission.
Reid failed in an attempt to blow up an American Airlines plane from Paris to Miami in December 2001 after passengers and crew tackled him as he tried to ignite explosives in his shoe. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2003.
Moussaoui's claim contradicted what he said last year in pleading guilty: that he was not supposed to be part of the September 11th hijackings but was meant to be in a second wave of al Qaeda attacks and fly an airplane into the White House.
Moussaoui said he did not know the precise date of the planned attacks when he was arrested in Minnesota on August 16th, 2001, and had only scant details of the overall plan.
"I had knowledge that the two towers would be hit but I didn't have the detail," said Moussaoui.
Asked by Gerald Zerkin, one of his court-appointed attorneys, if he was meant to be part of the September 11 attacks, Moussaoui said: "I was supposed to pilot a plane to hit the White House."
Moussaoui, who appeared calm in contrast to earlier courtroom outbursts, said he was asked in 1999 if he wanted to be a suicide pilot in an attack on the United States but he initially declined.
He agreed to take part in the plan in 2000 after having a dream, which he talked about with Osama bin Laden.