Washington: Al-Qaeda terrorists wanted to launch "more spectacular" attacks on the United States using as many as ten jetliners, but the plan was scaled down following internal differences in the terror network, the panel probing the September 11 strikes has found.

Senior al-Qaeda officials initially wanted to mount even more spectacular attacks using ten jetliners on the East and West coasts of the US causing massive casualties, the report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States said.

In addition to the targets that were hit on September 11, 2001, mastermind behind the attacks Mohammad Atta had proposed to crash the hijacked planes into CIA (Central Investigative Agency) and FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) headquarters, unidentified nuclear power plants and the tallest buildings in California and Washington States, it said.

"The centerpiece of his original proposal was the tenth plane, which he would have piloted himself," it said.

Instead of crashing it in a suicide attack, Atta would have killed every adult male passenger on the plane, contacted the media from the air and landed the aircraft at a US airport, the report said, adding he would then have made a speech denouncing US policies in the Middle East before releasing all thee women and children.

When bin Laden finally approved the operation, he personally scrapped the idea of using one of the hijacked planes to make a public statement, the report said.

The Commission staff found that "internal disagreement among the 9/11 plotters may have posed the greatest potential vulnerability for the plot".