The prime suspect in a German terror plot that allegedly intended to blow up hundreds of people may have had contact with Mohammed Atta, who hijacked one of the planes that was flown into the Twin Towers.

Fritz Gelowicz, 28, converted to Islam as an 18-year-old while living in Neu-Ulm, a small Roman Catholic town in southern Germany that has been regarded by police as a centre of Muslim extremism. Gelowicz has been linked to a visit to a mosque in the town that was made by Atta in 2000. Reports by police about the encounter are vague, but officials say that they have aided the investigation into his past. Gelowicz, who insisted on being called Abdullah, had gained the attention of police two years previously when he praised Islamic terror attacks publicly, Guenther Beckstein, the Interior Minister of Bavaria, said.

Gelowicz, who is thought to have attended a training camp in Pakistan, is being held after allegedly gathering 750 kilos (1,600lb) of hydrogen peroxide to make several bombs that were due to be used against US air bases or at clubs used by Americans.

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