Sydney: A Pakistan-born man was today (Apr 22, 2004) charged with planning a terrorist attack on a "major infrastructure facility" in Australia.

Thirty-four-year-old Faheem Khalid Lodhi of Punchbowl suburb in Sydney's Southwest was arrested from his home early today and presented in Central Local Court on seven charges.

Lodhi, an architect, "did acts in preparation for a terrorist act, namely upon a major infrastructure facility", according to the chargesheet handed to the court. It did not name the facility.

Lodhi had also sought the price of chemicals while using a false company name, prosecutors charged in the statement.

He was also reportedly accused of recruiting for a terrorist organisation in Sydney and Pakistan between April 2001 and March 2003.

These allegations "have reasonable explanations and those explanations have been provided to the authorities in camera proceedings", Lodhi's lawyer Stephen Hopper said.

Lodhi is said to have known 21-year-old Pakistan-born medical student, Izhar ul-Haque, who was recently arrested in Sydney for training in Pakistan with terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Hopper said his client was an acquaintance of Haque and deported French national Willie Brigitte, but had never been involved in a terrorist plot. French authorities alleged Brigitte was trying to start a terrorist cell in Sydney.

Lodhi was refused bail today and if convicted, he faces life imprisonment. He will reappear in the same court on June 2.