EIGHT men including, one from Blackburn, appeared in the dock on Wednesday accused of plotting terrorist attacks in Britain and the United States.

Amid extremely tight security at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in south east London, the men each appeared in the dock for less than 10 minutes.

All were remanded in custody until a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey on August 25.

After two weeks being questioned by the Anti-Terrorist Branch at Paddington Green police station in west London, the defendants arrived at Belmarsh in two police convoys.

All the defendants were dressed identically in grey jogging trousers and pristine white T-shirts or jumpers. All were dark-skinned and bearded and each spoke only to confirm their name and give their date of birth.

They sat silently as charges, including conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to "cause a public nuisance by the use of radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals or explosives" were read to them by the clerk.

Each defendant was led into the dock by two Metropolitan Police officers in body armour and told to sit on a wooden bench. At one stage, there were 13 police officers in body armour in the dock.

The first defendant to be led into the dock was Abdul Aziz Jalil, 31, from Luton, Bedfordshire, who was represented by barrister Colin Wells. He sat alone in the dock as the clerk read two charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to commit a public nuisance by using radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals or explosives.

Zia Ul Haq, 25, from Paddington, west London, Mohammed Naveed Bhatti, 24, of Harrow, Middlesex, Omar Abdul Rehman, 20, of Bushey, Hertfordshire, and Junade Feroze, 28, of Blackburn, were read the same two conspiracy charges as the other defendants.

Nadeem Tarmohammed, 26, Dhiren Barot, 32, and Qaisar Shaffi, 25, all from Willesden, north west London, faced the same accusations and additional charges under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.