THE POPE has been told that the al-Qaeda terrorists who masterminded the September 11 attacks in the United States planned to assassinate him during his tour of the Philippines.

The attack never took place because the Pope called off the visit in 1999 through ill-health.

However, the disclosure has increased concern for his safety as the Pope prepares for a visit to the Philippines early next year.

It is feared that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the author of the 1999 attempt, according to documents in the hands of Philippines Intelligence, may make another attempt on the Pope’s life.

Vatican officials declined to comment yesterday on reports of the latest plan to kill the Pope, but anti-terrorism experts in Italy said that there had been “repeated warnings” of an al-Qaeda attack on the Pope or on a “symbolic Vatican target” and that security had been intensified in and around St Peter’s Square, with metal detectors introduced for mass gatherings such as the Pope’s weekly audience.

Vatican-watchers said that although an abortive plot in 1995 in the Philippines against the Pope’s life was known about, the 1999 attempt had not been made public before. The Vatican has still not confirmed plans for a papal trip to Manila early next year, initially set for January 23-26.

Documents found in a block of flats in Karachi, Pakistan, used as a hideout by Mohammed show that he visited the Philippines on a number of occasions to finalise details for the assassination attempt. Local Islamic militants would have been used to detonate explosives while the Pope was saying Mass.

Mohammed evaded capture last month when he escaped from the flat after a police raid in which Ramzi bin al-Shibh, his close associate, was caught. He is still on the run.

Investigators studying the details of the documents are also examining records of telephone calls that the terrorists made in recent weeks, including some to Britain. Mohammed is understood to have spoken to al-Qaeda contacts in Britain using their mobile phones, which are difficult for security authorities to trace.

Police are investigating whether one of those he contacted was Abu Qatada, the radical cleric, who was arrested in a flat in South London last month and whom several European security agencies have described as al-Qaeda’s “ambassador in Europe”.

Mohammed is regarded as one of the most crucial and dangerous of Osama bin Laden’s lieutenants still at large, since the 38-year-old operational commander has access to al-Qaeda’s money and to the identities of its cells abroad. He is one of the most widely travelled of the al-Qaeda hierarchy.

The heavily built Mohammed is an expert at disguise. False documents were found in his Pakistan hideout, including credit cards and a cache of fake passports, including some from members of bin Laden’s own family. It is believed that Mohammed used one of his many aliases to slip into the Philippines to make contact with Islamic groups blamed for the recent bomb attack in Indonesia, which killed an estimated 190 people in a tourist bar in Bali.

His plan to kill the Pope was put together at the same time as he was enlisting al-Qaeda recruits around South-East Asia, many of whom were sent to Afghanistan for training in specialist techniques, including explosives and assassination.

The first attempt on the Pope’s life was to have been made in January 1995 as he addressed a crowd of several hundred thousand in a park in Manila. Documents show how Mohammed considered planting a pipe bomb and using snipers near the altar where the Pope was to say Mass. The idea was not only to kill the Pope and those standing closest to him, but also to cause pandemonium in the park by then ordering snipers to shoot randomly at those fleeing the carnage.

To fanatics such as Mohammed, the Pope is as great an enemy and obstacle to their vision of a global jihad as the US President.

This assassination plot had, though, to be scrapped after a clumsy accident by Ramzi Youssef, his nephew, who prematurely detonated an explosive device in his flat in Manila.

These two men are said by the FBI to have been instrumental in planning the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. They had the idea of hijacking aircraft and turning them into flying bombs. Both were also involved in the lorry bomb attack on the World Trade Centre in 1993.

Although his nephew was arrested soon after the abortive papal bomb plot in 1995, Mohammed escaped.

He returned to the Philippines intent on reviving the assassination plot against the Pope, but the Pope cancelled his trip to Manila at the last minute.

Security experts say that there is a danger that Mohammed will try again. Dr Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert and author of the book Inside al-Qaeda, is quoted as saying: “They (al-Qaeda) often return to complete unfinished business. When they didn’t destroy the World Trade Centre first time around, they came back to finish it off. That is how it was with the Pope in the Philippines.”

The importance of Mohammed to the terrorists’ operational activities can be gauged from the fact that a suicide bomber who was about to drive a lorry loaded with propane gas into a synagogue in Tunisia telephoned him minutes before carrying out the attack, in which 21 people were killed.

Mohammed has always preferred to undertake foreign operations rather than stay in the austere surroundings of Sudan and then Afghanistan with bin Laden and the rest of al-Qaeda’s high command. Investigators who have made a study of his tactics and lifestyle say that he prefers the “indulgences and decadences” of capitals such as Manila, Istanbul and Madrid rather than living in mountain hideouts with his colleagues.

The United States has put a $25 million bounty on his head.

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