NEW YORK, Oct 5 Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani American who admitted in court that he was a 'Muslim soldier' and hoped to kill many people by detonating a car bomb in New York's Times Square in May, was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison.

US District Court Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum handed down the sentence in a New York federal court. Shahzad pleaded guilty to 10 counts.

Two days after the failed bombing effort on May 1, Shahzad was arrested at JFK International Airport as he tried to escape to the Middle East.

He cooperated with investigators and soon pleaded guilty to 10 counts, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and an attempt to kill or maim people.

Shahzad has shown no remorse during court appearances and reportedly told investigators he had hoped to pull off a second bombing two weeks after the Times Square attack and as many after that as he could until he was captured or killed.

He said he had acted alone out of anger about US military action in Muslim countries and mistreatment of Muslims around the world.

A number of people allegedly associated with his terrorism efforts also were arrested in the United States and Pakistan as evidence emerged that the Pakistani Taliban were backing Shahzad both with cash and advice.

The son of a retired Pakistani air force officer, Shahzad grew up mostly in a secular upper-middle-class neighbourhood in Karachi.

He first came to the United States as a teenager in 1998 to study and, over the years, attained some of the trappings of what many in the United States consider a successful life — two university degrees, a wife and two small children, a house in the suburbs, a job as a junior financial analyst, credit cards and an SUV.

AP adds “You appear to be someone who was capable of education and I do hope you will spend some of the time in prison thinking carefully about whether the Quran wants you to kill lots of people,” Cedarbaum told Shahzad after she announced the sentence that would keep him in jail until he dies.

Shahzad responded that the “Quran gives us the right to defend. And that's all I'm doing.”

He warned that Americans could expect more bloodshed at the hands of Muslims. “Brace yourselves because the war with Muslims has just begun,” he told the judge. “Consider me the first droplet of the blood that will follow.”

Shahzad claimed the FBI's interrogation had violated his rights.

He also warned that attacks on Americans would continue until the United States pulled out of Muslim lands.

“We are only Muslims ... but if you call us terrorists, we are proud terrorists and we will keep on terrorising you,” he said.

He added “We do not accept your democracy or your freedom because we already have Sharia law and freedom.”

The judge cut him off at one point to ask if he had sworn allegiance to the United States when he became an American citizen last year.

“I did swear but I did not mean it,” said Shahzad.

“So you took a false oath,” the judge told him.

She also reminded him that he was a failed terrorist.