India-born Dhiren Barot, who pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to kill thousands in synchronised terrorist attacks in the US and setting off a 'dirty bomb' in Britain, was sentenced to life imprisonment Tuesday and told he must serve at least 40 years in prison.

Barot, a Hindu who converted to Islam, and said to be 'closely linked' with the Al Qaeda, is also wanted by US authorities over charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in the US and in Yemen, said the BBC.

Barot was born in Baroda, Gujarat, in December 1971. A year later, his parents, Manu and Bharati Barot, moved to Britain and settled in Kingsbury, a north-west London suburb. After leaving school in 1988, Dhiren obtained a diploma in tourism, which allowed him to work as a ticketing clerk for Air Malta from 1991 to 1995.

When he was 20, he converted to Islam -- which led to a massive row with his father -- and started attending Islamic lectures and meetings, gradually turning more radical. Some reports indicate that this was probably the time he was inducted into the Al Qaeda or one of its affiliate organisations.

Family friends told The Daily Telegraph that Barot's father was a disciplinarian who expected his family to follow traditional Indian values.

In 1995, Dhiren told his employers that he was leaving on a on 'long trip."

According to the Telegraph, 'he flew to Pakistan and then to Kashmir, "witnessing a side of Islam which cannot be found in classrooms". He took extensive notes about the weapons and explosives training he received and on his return used this knowledge to move to Afghanistan where he spent a year working as a trainer in one of the camps for Islamic fighters.'

'It was probably during this time that he met Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and became involved with al-Qaeda. He had the nicknames Esa al-Britani and Esa al-Hindi. Back in Britain he saw that el-Faisal had black bodyguards with relatives in Montana and travelled to the US to try to recruit them for al-Qaeda,' the Telegraph report said.

'In 1998 he moved to Thailand where he was married, although nothing is known of his wife. The following September he travelled to the Philippines to be trained in firearms, munitions and explosives handling,' the article said.

Some

reports said that he was trained at a camp run by the radical Jemaah Islamiyah group.

In 1999, writing under the name Esa Al Hindi, Barot published The Army of Medina in Kashmir. Apart from describing his life as a jihadi, he argued that Muslim countries needed "flank protection" against the West, and urged attacks on the soil of "interfering nations".

According to the evidence presented by the prosecution Monday, Barot planned the terror strikes in New York after intense reconnaissance by him during visits in August 2000 and March 2001.

In early 2004 he went again to Pakistan on a false passport to present the plans to senior al-Qaeda members in Lahore, and returned to Britain in April 2004.

"Working as a ticket clerk was his last substantial job. From then on, no social security benefits were sought or received. The plain inference is that someone or some organisation was supporting him financially," Prosecutor Edmund Lawson told the Woolwich Crown Court, that is trying the case..

But in July 2004, police in Pakistan raided a extremist hideout and discovered evidence of the plot and links to Barot, which were handed over to the British authorities who arrested him from a barber's shop on August 3.

Describing Barot as a "member or close associate of the Al Qaeda," Lawson said "the plan was to carry out massive explosions here and in the US, the principal object being to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people without warning."

The US targets included the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington DC, the New York Stock Exchange building and the Citigroup headquarters, as well as the Prudential building in Newark, New Jersey, Lawson said.

And in Britain, "There were plans for the detonation of a radiation dispersal device, more commonly known as a dirty bomb, the use of a petrol tanker to cause an explosion, and an attack on London's rail or underground network, including the Heathrow Express, an explosion on a Tube train while in a tunnel under the River Thames," he said.

Barot refuses to meet his father in prison, although he is in touch with his mother and older sister, who works for a law firm in the Midlands.

"I had dreams for him. I wanted to buy him a house, I wanted him to get married and have children," the Telegraph quoted his father as telling friends recently. "That won't happen now and I don't think I'll ever see him again."