A Pakistani-born architect behind a plot to carry out a terrorist attack on Australian soil was facing life in prison today.

Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, used a false name to purchase detailed maps of Sydney's electricity grid and military bases. He downloaded bomb-making instructions from the internet and placed orders for chemicals used in explosives.

Authorities were alerted in October 2003 by his boss when a suspicious fax - containing prices of chemicals which can be used in explosives - arrived at his office.

A 15-page book of notes handwritten in Urdu, containing instructions to make petrol bombs, cyanide gas and hand grenades was found in a raid the following day.

A computer disk containing more tha 600 files relating to Islamic extremism and military training manuals was found in a simultaneous search of his home.

Lodhi is the third Australian convicted under federal anti-terrorism laws passed in direct response to the September 11 atrocity in the United States.

He was convicted by a New South Wales Supreme Court jury of six men and six women after five days of dliberation which at one stage reached deadlock. He was cleared of a fourth charge of using aerial photographs of military bases for a purpose connected with terrorism.

Lodhi, an Australian citizen, was remanded in custody until June 29, when he is expected to be given a life sentence.

The Sunni Muslim had denied all of the charges, saying that he had migrated to Australia in 1998 to "do something better for my life" and saying the killing innocent people was against Islam.

He argued that, struggling to find work as an architect, he had considered setting up his own export business and chemical manufacture company.

"This country is my country. These people are my people," he told the court.

In court papers, Lodhi was accused of "the intent of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause, namely violent jihad".

Lodhi has been linked to Frenchman Willie Brigitte, who was deported from Australia in late 2003 accused in a leaked French intelligence dossier of planning a terrorist attack"of great size".

Both Lodhi and Brigitte are alleged to have trained with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant Pakistani group that Australia has banned as a terrorist organisation.

A British-born Muslim convert, Jack Roche, became the first person convicted under Australia’s anti-terror laws in May 2004, when he pleaded guilty to conspiring with al-Qaeda to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

In February this year, 32-year-old Joseph Thomas - dubbed Jihad Jack by local media - received a five-year prison sentence for intentionally receiving money from al-Qaeda and having a false passport.

Last November, police arrested 18 Muslims in co-ordinated pre-dawn raids in Melbourne and Sydney in an operation officials said headed off a catastrophic terror attack, possibly targeting Australia’s only nuclear reactor.

They are currently awaiting trial on charges ranging from being members of a terrorist organisation to conspiring to carry out a terrorist attack. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

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