Six Britons to go on trial over London bomb plot

LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) Six Britons go on trial next week accused of attempting to bomb London's transport system in July 2005, two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters in the capital in Britain's deadliest peacetime attack by militants.

The six men are charged with planning to set off explosives on three underground trains and a bus on July 21, sparking panic in a city reeling from the suicide bombings a fortnight earlier.

The trial, which will take place at the high-security Woolwich Crown Court in east London, will be one of the most high-profile anti-terrorism cases in Britain in recent years.

The jury was expected to be sworn in following legal argument today with the prosecution unveiling its case at the start of the trial on Monday.

The deadly attacks on July 7 were the first by suicide bombers in Western Europe and the government has since increased security to prevent a repeat by home-grown Islamist militants, angered by British foreign policy.

The suspected plot, which detectives say failed because the devices did not detonate, sparked one of Britain's biggest manhunts.

It came after four British Islamists blew up devices on three underground trains and a double decker bus on July 7 using homemade bombs hidden in rucksacks. The attacks left the bombers and 52 commuters dead with more than 700 others injured.

The main suspects now facing trial were apprehended just over a week after the suspected plot was to be carried out.

Muktah Said Ibrahim, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, Hussein Osman, Yassin Hassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Adel Yahya are all charged with conspiracy to murder.

They are also accused of ''conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property''.

Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said today it had indicated to the judge that it would not go ahead with the charges of ''possessing an explosive substance with intent'' and attempted murder.

These would be incorporated into the two other more serious accusations, a spokeswoman said.

Ibrahim is accused of trying to blow up a bus in Hackney; Omar is accused of trying to detonate an explosive at Warren Street underground station; Osman is accused to trying to blow up a train near Shepherd's Bush station; Mohammed is suspected of trying to set off a device on a train at Oval station.

Asiedu also faces the charge of ''possessing an explosive substance with intent'' in connection with a device police said had been abandoned in a park a few days later.

REUTERS SP RN1839