The charges link a plot against targets in New York to a scheme to attack a target in the United Kingdom, and say both were directed by "senior al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan."

The cells used similar codes to communicate with their handler, both saying they were planning a "wedding" to mean an attack.

"We will have many guests attending the party," one of the suspects in England told his al Qaeda contact in an e-mail reproduced in a British ruling in May. That suspect, Abid Naseer, was arrested in England on Wednesday, London's Metropolitan Police said.

Naseer has been in and out of British courts for over a year. An immigration tribunal found in May that he was an al Qaeda operative, but said he could not be deported to Pakistan because of the risk he would be tortured there. He has never been charged in criminal court in Britain.

The other suspects charged Wednesday are Adnan El Shukrijumah, Adis Medunjanin, Tariq Ur Rehman; and a fifth defendant known as "Ahmad," "Sohaib" or "Zahid," the Justice Department said. El Shukrijumah and "Ahmad" are accused of being senior al Qaeda figures who directed the others in their terror plots.

Rehman is associated with Naseer in England, the department says, while Medunjanin is linked to a New York subway bomb plot involving two other suspects, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay. The other two have already pleaded guilty and are cooperating with authorities.

Medunjanin was already in custody in connection with the New York subway plot, but the new indictment Wednesday adds another charge against him - trying to crash his car into another one as a last-ditch effort to carry out a suicide attack after other plotters were arrested.

Each of the defendants would face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.