Failed shoe-bomber to plead guilty

THE Briton who set out to kill 197 people

Londoner Richard Reid, 29, was tackled by passengers and crew as he tried to set off sophisticated explosives in his trainers on an American Airlines Paris to Miami flight in December.

US Attorney General John Ashcroft stressed that prosecutors in Boston had not struck a deal with the Muslim convert, saying they would prove all their claims against him at his sentencing.

US officials believe Reid was trained for his mission by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.

The shoe-bomber has asked for all references to al-Qaida to be removed from his record a move officials vowed to fight.

Reid, who studied Islam at a Brixton mosque known as a recruiting centre for extremists, faces between 60 years and life in jail.

On Wednesday night his lawyer said Reid will admit to attempting to use a "weapon of mass destruction" to murder Americans and that he intends to plead guilty to all eight counts against him. His court-appointed defence said he "has no disagreement with the facts asserted in the charges as to his actions on December 22, 2001".

Reid, they said, was pleading guilty because he "wants to avoid the publicity associated with a trial and the negative impact it is likely to have on his family".

FBI director, Robert Mueller, believes an al-Qaida bomb maker built the shoe explosive he tried to use.

While US officials were disappointed to have lost the chance to prosecute a dangerous terrorist, intelligence agents were relieved the plea means they can keep secret sensitive information that they would have had to use to show Reid's alleged ties to al-Qaida.