An Australian government warning about a possible "terrorist threat" was prompted by fears over "home-grown" extremists, it was reported today.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday he had received specific information about a possible "terrorist threat", but refused to give any details about the nature or location of the threat.
"The intelligence relates to home-grown terror suspects in the country's two biggest cities who are believed to be building the capability to mount an attack," the Sydney Morning Heraldreported.
Australia has not lifted its terror alert warning from the present level of medium, and Mr Howard said today the intelligence he had seen this week did not point to an imminent attack.
"It doesn't mean something is going to happen in the next few days," he told Australian radio. But he added that Australia could not be considered to be immune from a possible attack.
Mr Howard's warning came as the Australian domestic intelligence service acknowledged for the first time that Australia had home-grown extremists, some of whom had received terror training overseas.
Mr Howard also said he expected parliament to pass urgent amendments to new anti-terror laws, to allow authorities to lay charges against people involved with planning generic attacks, rather than current laws that relate only to specific attacks.