Osama bin Laden has sought asylum in Britain even as he was planning the September 11 attacks on the US, The Times reported Thursday, citing Michael Howard, the then Home Secretary.

"The al-Qaeda leader wanted to abandon his base in Sudan at the end of 1995 and asked some of his followers in London to sound out whether he would be able to move to Britain."

Michael Howard says he was informed of the asylum request from his aides, only two months after bin Laden had secretly organised a terror summit in Manila in January 1995 to begin planning how hijackers would turn passenger planes into flying bombs.

The Times says Bin Laden never got a chance to make a formal application as Home Office officials investigated him and Howard issued an immediate banning order under Britain's immigration laws.

It was not until June 1998 - two months before attacks on US embassies in Africa - that bin Laden was placed on the FBI's most wanted list.

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