One of the men accused of plotting to bomb Britain also discussed poisoning football fans, the Old Bailey heard.

Waheed Mahmood, from Crawley, said beer cans could be spiked with poison which could also be used in burgers and takeaways, according to supergrass Mohammed Babar.

Babar, who has been given immunity from prosecution, was giving evidence yesterday against Mahmood and six others - three also from Crawley - accused of plotting explosions in the UK. They all deny the charges.

Babar said he met Mahmood, 34, in Pakistan in 2003 where they talked of Jihad, holy war.

American Babar said: "He could not understand why all these UK brothers were coming over to Pakistan. They could easily do Jihad operation in England."

Waheed allegedly said: "You could get a job in a soccer stadium as a beer vendor. You just put poison in a syringe, inject it in a can and put a sticker on it which would stop it leaking and give it out. You could get mobile vending carts - all those vans going round selling burgers. He said he had done it. I didn't believe it."

Babar alleged Waheed said another food poisoning scam would be to give out flyers for takeaways.

He claimed Waheed said: "You didn't have to start a restaurant. You could make up flyers. It would just have a phone number and they could call up and order food and you just poison their food. There is no business so they cannot track you down."

Waheed also allegedly said they could cause millions of pounds' damage without killing people if they hit utilities like phone, gas and electricity companies.

The seven accused of being part of the terror cell are Omar Khyam, 24, his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, Waheed Mahmood, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Anthony Garcia, 23, of Ilford, east London, and Nabeel Hussain, 20, of Horley.

They deny conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between January 1 2003 and March 31 2004.

Khyam, Garcia and Hussain also deny a charge under the Terrorism Act of possessing 1,300lb of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for terrorism. Khyam and Shujah Mahmood further deny possessing aluminium powder for terrorism.

The trial was adjourned until Monday.