Majority option for bomb plot jury

The direction from Mr Justice Calvert-Smith came as jurors were spending their 11th day considering verdicts following the four-and-a-half-month trial at the high-security Woolwich Crown Court in south east London.

The eight Muslim men face two charges of conspiracy to murder between January 1 and August 11 2006, with one charge specifying that the attacks would involve the detonation of improvised explosive devices on transatlantic passenger aircraft.

Prosecutors allege the gang planned to smuggle the home-made liquid bottle bombs disguised as soft drinks on board planes flying from Heathrow to North America.

The jury was told the devices were to be detonated by suicide bombers, causing mid-air carnage.

Giving evidence in their defence during the trial, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, and Assad Sarwar, 28, said they planned to record a documentary highlighting injustices against Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon.

Ali said he considered exploding a device at the Houses of Parliament or Heathrow Airport's Terminal 3 as a publicity stunt protesting against British foreign policy. He claimed martyrdom videos recorded by six of the defendants were a hoax to be used as part of an internet documentary.

Seven out of eight defendants have admitted conspiring to commit public nuisance by distributing al Qaida-style videos threatening suicide bomb attacks in Britain.

The defendants who have pleaded guilty to the charge are: Ali, Sarwar, Tanvir Hussain, 27, Ibrahim Savant, 27, Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, Waheed Zaman, 24, and Umar Islam, 30. Ali, Sarwar and Hussain have also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions.

The defendants are: Abdulla Ahmed Ali, of Prospect Hill, Walthamstow, east London; Assad Sarwar, of Walton Drive, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire; Tanvir Hussain, of Nottingham Road, Leyton, east London; Mohammed Gulzar, 27, of Priory Road, Barking, east London; Ibrahim Savant, of Denver Road, Stoke Newington, north London; Arafat Waheed Khan, of Farnan Avenue, Walthamstow; Waheed Zaman, of Queen's Road, Walthamstow; and Umar Islam, aka Brian Young, of Bushey Road, Plaistow, east London.