Supergrass Mohammed Babar - giving evidence against seven men accused of planning bomb attacks - has admitted he plotted to kill the president of Pakistan.

Babar, 31, said he had been involved in two conspiracies to murder General Pervez Musharaf.

He told the Old Bailey yesterday he had been given immunity from prosecution in the United States in return for testifying in court cases.

Four men from Crawley are among seven Britons alleged to be linked to al- Qaida and accused of plotting bomb attacks in Britain.

Babar agreed with defence counsel Joel Bennathan he might have been facing a death penalty in Pakistan if he had not made a deal with the FBI.

Mr Bennathan, representing Crawley defendant Omar Khyam, put it to Babar: "If you were not here giving evidence, you might be on death row in Pakistan?" Babar replied: "Yes".

He agreed he had been involved in two different conspiracies against the president while in Pakistan in 2002.

The first had involved him having AK-47 semi-automatic rifles, up to 5,000 rounds of ammunition and grenades.

The second involved him being approached by a man who wanted him to put together a team to kill President Musharaf on the Muslim holiday of Eid.

Babar said none of the British men accused in the trial was involved in the plots.

Khyam, 24, his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, Waheed Mahmood, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Beds, Anthony Garcia, 23, of Ilford, east London, and Nabeel Hussain, 20, of Horley, Surrey, deny conspiracy to cause explosions in the UK.

Khyam, Garcia and Hussain also deny a charge under the Terrorism Act of possessing 600kg (1,300lb) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for terrorism.

Khyam and Shujah Mahmood further deny possessing aluminium powder for terrorism.

Babar claims to have plotted with them in England and in Pakistan where, it is alleged, most of them attended a terror training camp.

The trial continues.