Obama was considered potential target: Source

NEW YORK (AP) - A Bangladeshi man snared in an FBI terror sting considered targeting President Barack Obama and the New York City Stock Exchange before settling on a car bomb attack on the Federal Reserve, just blocks from the World Trade Centre site, a law enforcement official said on Thursday.

The official, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the investigation and talked to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, stressed that the suspect never got beyond the discussion stage in considering an attack on the United States (US) president.

In a September meeting with an undercover agent posing as a fellow jihadist, Mr Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis explained he chose the Federal Reserve as his car bomb target "for operational reasons", according to a criminal complaint.

Nafis also indicated he knew that choice would "cause a large number of civilian casualties, including women and children", the complaint said.