10:49am UK, Friday April 21, 2006

The trial of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui has been told there is no evidence to support his claim that he and shoe bomber Richard Reid planned to crash a plane into the White House.

Prosecutors admitted FBI analysts had found such a possibility highly unlikely.

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Zacarias Moussaoui

The admission came at the end of six weeks of evidence.

Jurors will hear closing arguments from Monday after which they must decide if Moussaoui should die or spend the rest of his life in prison.

His involvement in the 9/11 atrocities in the US is not at issue.

The disclosure about Reid goes directly to the dispute over the credibility of Moussaoui's testimony.

He stunned the courtroom on March 27 by telling jurors he and Reid were to have hijacked a fifth aircraft on 9/11.

His court-appointed defence team argues Moussaoui was lying either to achieve martyrdom through execution or to enhance his role in history as an al Qaeda terrorist.

The lawyers failed in a bid to bring Reid to court from prison, where he is serving life for attempting to detonate a shoe bomb on a trans-Atlantic flight in December 2001.

But a statement about Reid was read to the jury.

"No information is available to indicate that Richard Reid had pre-knowledge of the September 11 operation or was instructed by al Qaeda leaders to conduct an operation in coordination with Moussaoui," it said.