'UK prevented Sept 11-like terrorist attack'

al-Qaeda intended to train suicide pilots to crash planes into the London landmarks just as it had convinced others to fly into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in the United States on September 11, 2001, ITV News said.

"I am told that the plan for an attack on Canary Wharf also involved terrorists who trained as pilots," said ITV News political editor, Nick Robinson.

"I have not been told how or when it was uncovered or how close they came," he said. "The terrorists were also plotting, it was claimed, to crash planes into Heathrow Airport."

"I am in no doubt that this was a genuine feeling on the behalf of those in the security services that they have managed to foil a plot and make us safer," he added.

When asked if the story had come from Britain's security services, ITV News told AFP that the "unattributable source" was "in that arena".

According to the ITV News website, the attack on Heathrow and Canary Wharf was one of four or five planned by al-Qaeda in Britain since September 11, 2001, which "have come to nothing, after the authorities intervened."

Britain's Home Office and London's Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the report.