FULL body scanners at airports are useless against the latest technique reportedly being considered by terrorists - surgically inserting explosives inside suicide bombers' bodies - says one of Australia's leading counter-terrorism experts.

Yet one of the best methods of detection - sniffer dogs - was barely being debated, said counter-terrorism expert Professor Clive Williams of the Australian National University.

Britain's intelligence agency MI5 has uncovered evidence that al-Qaeda is planning to implant explosives in its operatives' bodies, security sources have told British newspaper the Daily Mail.

Male bombers could have a plastic sachet of explosives (such as pentaerythritol tetranitrate, used in Semtex plastic explosives) inserted surgically near the appendix area or in the buttocks, the paper reported.

Similarly, female bombers could have the explosives implanted in the breast, just like an augmentation operation, the paper said, citing unnamed sources.