(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-06 09:54

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the men were "very dangerous terrorists" who had planned their attacks on the orders of "an international network."

Schaeuble said one of the suspects had links to the Islamist scene in Neu-Ulm in southern Germany. Investigators have suspected for several years that a mosque in Neu-Ulm is used as a base for extremists planning attacks.

"The danger that international terrorism represents is a reality not only for the soldiers, police and personnel charged with the reconstruction in Afghanistan... but also inside our own country," he said later.

Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the arrests, saying: "They show that the dangers of terrorism in Germany are not abstract, they are real."

The White House said US President George W. Bush had been informed of the arrests Tuesday, while the State Department confirmed it worked in "very close cooperation with the German government" on the investigation.

Some officials suggested the plot had been hatched to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, but German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung would only say that the threat had been "imminent."

The anti-terrorist operation in Germany came after police in Denmark said Tuesday they had foiled a terrorist attack after arresting eight men they said had links to Al-Qaeda.

Germany, which has about 3,000 soldiers serving in Afghanistan, has been on high alert for several months.

Islamist groups warned Germany earlier this year that it faced attacks unless it withdrew its troops from Afghanistan.

The US embassy in Germany said in April it was increasing security at US facilities in the country in response to "a heightened threat situation."

US counter-terrorism officials revealed subsequently that authorities had intelligence suggesting Islamic extremists were planning to attack US targets in Germany with bombs and small arms.

German federal prosecutors in June charged a Lebanese man with masterminding a failed plot to bomb two passenger trains using bombs packed in suitcases last year which failed to explode because of faulty detonators.

Six Lebanese men are currently standing trial in Lebanon over the plot, which targeted trains in western Germany.

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