The jailed Muslim cleric Abu Hamza met an al-Qaeda terrorist in Colindale, the Old Bailey heard this week.

Hamza is said to have met American Mohammed Junaid Babar, an al-Qaeda operative-turned-informant, at a friend's house in Colindale in 2003, while he was in the UK to plot an attack.

The revelation came during the trial of seven men, all British citizens, who are suspected of planning to set off a bomb, with targets including Kent's Bluewater shopping centre and a London night club.

Babar admitted his role in the bomb conspiracy in August 2004, and pleaded guilty to several terrorist offences in New York.

He told the court last week that he took some of the alleged plotters to a training camp in Malakand, Pakistan, and that he was influenced by the teachings of Hamza.

Hamza was jailed for seven years in February after being found guilty of inciting murder and race hate, and holding a document useful to terrorists.

One of the defendants in the current trial, Algerian-born Anthony Garcia, 24, of Ilford, Essex, whose code name was John Lewis', regularly stayed at his girlfriend's home in Turnstone Close, Colindale, which was raided in April 2004, on the morning police arrested all of the defendants. Police have refused to discuss whether the flat was where Hamza's meeting took place.

The prosecution said camping equipment, destined for Afghanistan, was found at the property, along with a letter from Mr Garcia to his brother in which he allegedly said goodbye.

Mr Garcia, along with defendants Nabeel Hussain, 20, of Horley, Surrey, and Waheed Mahmood, 34, of Crawley, West Sussex, denies possessing 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for the purposes of terrorism between November 11, 2003, and March 31 2004. It is claimed that Mr Garcia booked a storage unit in Hanwell, west London, to store the chemical fertiliser before turning it into a bomb.

All seven men deny conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or injure property between January 1, 2003, and March 31, 2004. The trial continues.