ISLAMIST terrorists wanted to trick young Muslims into attacking Britain, by training them to fight in Afghanistan for al-Qaeda and then telling them that the country was inaccessible, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

The British extremists allegedly intended to set up a private terrorist training camp in Pakistan, teaching hijacking and use of explosives and firearms. One also discussed poisoning water supplies with ricin. Another said that Britain needed to be targeted in the same way as America had been in the September 11 attacks.

The claims were made by Mohammed Babar, an American terrorist turned supergrass who is giving evidence against the men that he claims were his former accomplices. The seven defendants, all from southeast England, are charged with conspiring to bomb a British target, such as a shopping centre, nightclub or train. Six allegedly attended training camps in Pakistan.

Babar said that he discussed setting up a camp with Waheed Mahmood, 34, of Crawley, who insisted that those who attended had to be prepared to fight jihad (holy war) in Afghanistan. He attempted to recruit through British contacts.

But the key prosecution witness added: “From conversations I had with them [the group] I don’t think they had any intention of sending people into Afghanistan. They would tell [those at camps] later that it was difficult to go and would then give the only other option: working for them on operations in the UK and Pakistan.”

While living in Pakistan, Babar offered to set up a camp for the group. He was also involved in storing bomb ingredients; at one stage he held detonators, ammonium nitrate, aluminium powder, other explosives paraphernalia and ricin in his flat in Lahore. The castor beans, from which ricin is made, were allegedly brought from Islamabad by Omar Khyam, 24, also from Crawley.

Babar said: “He said it was a poison [and talked] about poisoning water supplies or people. He went into detail how to make it.”

He said that the detonators were sourced by Salahuddin Amin, 31, of Luton, with the help of a man who worked for Abdul Hadi, No 3 in command for al-Qaeda. Mr Amin argued with Mr Khyam because he allegedly asked Mr Amin to transport the detonators to Europe or Britain.

The court was told that the men had ordered “survival” equipment for the training camp from outdoor shops in Britain, and had special clothing made. These included shalwar kameez with zippered pockets for ammunition. A British relative of one defendant posted hiking boots, sleeping bags and solar panels to the men while they were in Pakistan.

They posed as Western tourists to travel within Pakistan and collect thousands of pounds from contacts, to fund the camp. Mr Mahmood’s brother-in-law allegedly gave about £4,000 and another contact provided £3,500, which was sent to him from Britain.

When asked for the source of the rest of the money, Babar said that each of the defendants who travelled to Pakistan months earlier had brought between £5,000 and £7,000 and entrusted this to Mr Khyam.

During discussions, some of the defendants allegedly said that they disliked al-Muhajiroun, the radical group that the Government wanted to ban, because it was “all talk”.

Some of the defendants also had leadership squabbles with other British Muslims in Pakistan when offering to provide training in exchange for Mr Khyam and Mr Mahmood becoming the “emirs” of another group. This offer was rejected.

Mr Amin, Mr Mahmood, Mr Khyam, his brother Shujah Mahmood, 18, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, West Sussex; Anthony Garcia, 24, from Ilford, East London; and Nabeel Hussain, 20, from Horley, Surrey; all deny conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life between October 2003 and March 2004.

Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny possessing 600kg of fertiliser for the purposes of terrorism. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood deny possessing aluminium powder, also for the purposes of terrorism. The trial continues.

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