Zacarias Moussaoui asked for nothing in exchange for pleading guilty to a role in a terrorist conspiracy that includes the September 11, 2001, attacks, an admission that could bring the death penalty, federal officials said in Washington.

PRESIDENT George W Bush has overstepped his authority since the September 11 attacks by jailing American citizens suspected of links to terrorism and denying them access to lawyers and courts, an attorney for a US-born terrorism suspect told the Supreme Court yesterday.

Zacarias Moussaoui, the first person accused of being an accomplice in the September 11 terrorist attacks, will today plead not guilty to conspiring to kill and maim thousands of victims.