THREE British Muslims have admitted plotting to explode a home-made bomb at the Houses of Parliament as part of a protest against British foreign policy.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 28, and Tanvir Hussain, 27, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions at Woolwich Crown Court, London.

The men also admitted conspiring to cause public nuisance by distributing al Qaida-style videos threatening suicide bomb attacks in Britain.

Two other men, Ibrahim Savant, 27, and Umar Islam, 30, also admitted conspiring to cause a public nuisance.

But a jury must still decide if the five men, and three others, are guilty of an unprecedented transatlantic airline suicide bomb conspiracy.

Prosecutors claimed the men made the "inherently improbable" and "bogus" confessions to new charges in order to distract attention from the main allegations.

They said the gang were in fact plotting to smuggle liquid bombs on board passenger jets flying from Heathrow to major cities in North America.

The bombs would be detonated by suicide bombers in a wave of mid-air explosions, killing thousands and leaving the authorities powerless to act, the jury were told.

Peter Wright QC said the conspirators were fanatics who believed they would achieve immortality in the eyes of other radical Muslims through mass murder.

He said: "What they intended to do was to shock the world, not merely by the nature of the acts engaged in, but also by the fact that such actions could be, and were, committed by those who were apparently ordinary law-abiding citizens.

"This was part of the message to the wider audience. A statement of the strength of resistance to perceived Muslim oppression across the globe.

The guilty pleas came before prosecution barristers summed up their case as the terror trial draws to a close. The jury are expected to retire next week.

The eight men now face two revised charges of conspiracy to murder, with one charge specifying that the attacks would involve the detonation of improvised bombs on passenger aircraft.

In their defence, Ali and Sarwar said they planned to record a documentary highlighting injustices against Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

Ali said he considered exploding a small device at the Houses of Parliament or Heathrow Terminal Three as a publicity stunt to draw attention to the programme.

He claimed martyrdom videos recorded by six of the defendants were a hoax to be used as part of the internet documentary to make it more shocking.

But Mr Wright said the men wanted to "achieve immortality and notoriety in equal measure".

The trial continues.