Australia's only nuclear reactor may have been a target for the 18 men arrested on terrorism charges in Sydney and Melbourne last week, acccording to court documents released today.

In 21 pages of allegations submitted to Sydney’s Central Local Court, Australian investigators described how three of the men were stopped by police after they were spotted acting suspiciously near the Lucas Heights research reactor on the outskirts of Sydney late last year.

The suspects - Mazen Touma, Mohammed Elomar and Abdul Rakib Hasan - told police that they were in the area to ride an off-road trail bike that was in the back of their car, but when questioned separately gave different accounts of their activities, police said.

Police later found that a gate to the reactor, which develops radioactive isotopes for use in medicine, but does not generate power, had recently been cut.

The three men were among 18 arrested before dawn on November 8 in Australia's largest ever counter-terrorism operation. All the men, who were arrested in Sydney and Melbourne, are Australian-born or naturalised citizens and officials have accused them of plotting a "catastrophic" act of terrorism.

Last week, Australian officials said that preparations were so advanced that the men could have carried out their attacks within days.

Police say that the suspects formed two cells of a militant splinter group led by a radical Muslim cleric in Melbourne called Abdul Nacer Benbrika, also known as Abu Bakr.

All the men, including Mr Benbrika, have been charged with preparing terrorist attacks, being a member of a terrorist group and conspiracy to commit a terrorist act. The men have not yet entered pleas to the charges.

Alongside details of the alleged plot, police revealed today that six of the suspects had undergone "jihad training" in the Outback and that the Sydney group had ordered hundreds of litres of chemicals to make "peroxide-based explosives" similar to those used in the July 7 attacks on London.

Searches of properties belonging to the men turned up chemicals, ammunition, firearms, 165 detonators, machetes, samurai swords and books on terrorism and jihad, according to police. The men are also accused of ordering steel drums, batteries, plastic piping, circuit kits and stopwatches.

The document also revealed that one of the men, Khaled Sharrouf, was arrested by police last month allegedly trying to steal six digital timers and 132 batteries from a shop in Sydney.

Other materials mentioned in court documents today included a computer memory stick containing instructions in Arabic to make explosives and videos entitled "Sheikh Osama’s Training Course" and "Are you ready to die?"

Police also quoted from electronic surveillance of a meeting between Mr Benbrika and the Sydney group in February.

Exhorting his followers to attack all those who opposed Sharia, or Islamic law, Mr Benbrika is alleged to have said: "If we want to die for jihad, we have to have maximum damage. Maximum damage. Damage their buildings, everything. Damage their lives. In this we’ll have to be careful."

The arrests have provoked security fears across Australia and sparked a terrorism alert today in Brisbane. Authorities in the city announced that all public buses and trains would unload their passengers for 30 minutes during the evening rush hour due to threats against the transport system.

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