NEW YORK Jan 8: A Pakistani suspect in an alleged Al Qaeda plot against New York City subways also was part of a terror campaign that would have targeted Britain and Norway, US prosecutors told a New York court on Monday.

Abid Naseer, 26, pleaded not guilty through his attorney at a federal court in Brooklyn. He arrived in New York last week after his extradition from the United Kingdom.

The judge has ordered Naseer held without bail until his next court date, on March 7.

Prosecutors said Naseer was an Al Qaeda operative who collected bomb-making materials and scouted potential targets as part of Najibullah Zazi’s plot to carry out coordinated suicide bombing attacks in busy subway stations in 2009.

Naseer has also been charged with plotting to bomb a busy shopping area in Manchester, England. He was one of 12 people arrested in a counter-terrorism operation in April 2009, but all were subsequently released without charges.

They were ordered to leave Britain, but Naseer escaped deportation to Pakistan after a judge ruled it was likely he would be mistreated if he were sent home.

The government alleges that Naseer, in early April 2009, used coded language in an email to inform his Al Qaeda handler in Pakistan that he was “…planning a large wedding for numerous guests between April 15 and 20, 2009” and that his Al Qaeda contact “should be ready”.

Prosecutors said he was giving the date for a subway attack in New York.

The US attorney said intercepted emails show flour and oil were some of the ingredients in the explosives Naseer was planning to use. When mixed with ammonium nitrate, a type of fertiliser, they can increase the power and heat of the bomb.