The 23-year-old Nigerian, charged with attempting to destroy a US aircraft on its final approach to Detroit airport, was "recruited" in London and "groomed" in Yemen by the al Qaeda, a British newspaper has claimed.

Quoting security sources, The Times reported that the pictures emerging of undergraduate years of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a former president of the Islamic Society at University College London, suggests that he was recruited by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network in London.

According to the newspaper, one of the events he had organised took place in January 2007, and included talks on Guantánamo Bay, the alleged torture of prisoners and the War on Terror.

In fact, Abdulmutallab is the fourth president of a London student Islamic society to face terrorist charges in three years. One is facing a re-trial on charges that he was involved in the 2006 liquid bomb plot to blow up airliners.

Two others were convicted of terrorist offences since 2007.

Abdulmutallab, who left UCL last year, also attempted to renew his student visa in May this year on basis of an application to study "life coaching" at a non-existent college, the newspaper said.

"That visa refusal may have saved Britain from an attack. His terrorist training took a new turn in August when he moved to Yemen, to study Arabic, and was schooled by al Qaeda there. Abdulmutallab featured on the periphery of one counterterrorism intelligence operation in Britain," it said.

Abdulmutallab, the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, is alleged to have set off an explosive device as the flight approached Detroit airport on Christmas Day. The device caused a fire which burned his legs. Al Qaeda, which has claimed the attack, said it failed due to a "faulty detonator".