Sydney 'terror' plotter in court

Mr Brigitte appeared calm as he underwent questioning

A man accused of setting up an Islamic terror cell in Australia and plotting to attack a nuclear power station has gone on trial in Paris.

Willie Brigitte, a 38-year-old from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, was arrested in Australia in 2003.

He faces up to 10 years in jail on charges of criminal conspiracy in relation with a terrorist enterprise.

His lawyer said Mr Brigitte, a Muslim convert, was not a terrorist and had gone to Australia for a change of life.

Among the targets Mr Brigitte is accused of plotting to attack are:

• Australia's only nuclear research power station, in the Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights
• A US/Australian electronic intelligence surveillance station at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs
• Military bases across the country

"You are alleged to have taken part in a group on the territories of Yemen, Pakistan and Australia that was formed in order to prepare one or several terrorist acts," said the judge, reading out the charge sheet.

The prosecution doesn't even know the target of this alleged attack - they've listed everything except the Sydney Opera House Defence lawyer Jean-Claude Durimel

Mr Brigitte appeared calm as he underwent questioning.

He admitted that he had been known by different Muslim groups under various names, including Abu Salahuddin in Pakistan and "Abderrahman the West Indian".

"My client has never been a terrorist, he never plotted any kind of attack in Australia. The prosecution doesn't even know the target of this alleged attack - they've listed everything except the Sydney Opera House," said defence lawyer Jean-Claude Durimel.

'Combat training'

France's top anti-terrorist judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, has accused Mr Brigitte of setting up a terror cell in Australia in alliance with the Pakistani Islamic militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Lucas Heights nuclear facility could have been a target

Lashkar-e-Toiba was banned in Australia in November 2003, a month after Mr Brigitte was deported for immigration offences.

It is also banned in the UK under the Terrorism Act.

Mr Brigitte first attracted the attention of French intelligence in 1998, after he travelled to Yemen to attend a Koranic school.

He is accused of running forest training camps in France for would-be Islamic militants, and is thought to have undergone combat training in Pakistan after 9/11.

Moving to Australia in May 2003, he spent five months working in a kebab shop, and married an Australian Muslim convert, a former army signaller.

He has been portrayed in Australia as the country's most dangerous link with al-Qaeda.