A Pakistani student who allegedly plotted to blow up the Arndale shopping centre in Manchester has gone on trial in New York.

Abid Naseer, 28, has been accused of playing a major part in a 2009 al Qaeda plan to cause mass casualties in New York, Manchester and Copenhagen.

In court the prosecution said this co-ordinated plot aimed to "repeat the devastation of 9/11", and that it came from the very top of the al Qaeda terror group.

The prosecution told the court that Abid Naseer "was the leader of the Manchester cell", describing how he and others visited multiple public locations and took photographs of potential targets before settling on the Arndale Centre, which was to be targeted around the Easter holidays.

Speaking before a jury of 18 men and women, the prosecutors described how Naseer had travelled to Pakistan for weapons and bomb-making training, and how he communicated with senior al Qaeda handlers using email addresses with female names.

Prosecutors said Naseer also used "standard al Qaeda code", referring to women, weddings, marriages and parties when he meant bombs, targets and attacks.

Naseer, who is representing himself, denies the charges against him.

He told the court that his multiple email accounts with female names in the address were to chat with women online who might not if they thought he was a man, and to play pranks on his friends.

He said that he used internet cafes and web chat rooms to meet women, and find a wife while he was studying in Manchester.

The court is due to hear from serving British MI5 officers about Naseer's alleged activities in the UK.

They will testify in disguise in order to protect their identities.

The court will also see documents taken from the US SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound that are to be revealed in public for the first time.

The documents are said to contain a letter from a senior al Qaeda operative to bin Laden updating him on the details of the New York, Manchester and Copenhagen plots.

Naseer was extradited to the US in 2013.

He was initially arrested after 2009 terror raids in Manchester, but released without charge.

The raids were brought forward after Britain's most senior counter-terror officer, Bob Quick, was photographed walking in to Downing Street with details of the raid clearly displayed on a file he was carrying.

If convicted Naseer faces life in prison.

(Sky News)