A Caribbean-based terror cell with links to radical Islam plotted to launch a catastrophic terror strike on John F. Kennedy International Airport, in New York, in an attack that could have claimed more lives than September 11.

The plot included a former cargo handler at the airport and a Muslim cleric who had been a Guyanan MP and involved scouting the targets using the web-based satellite imaging tool Google Earth.

New York's Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said it signalled a growing concern about the Caribbean - an area of the world better known for sun-soaked beaches, cricket matches and reggae music.

Speaking in New York earlier, US lawyer Roslynn R.Mauskopf called the plan "one of the most chilling plots imaginable".

"The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable," she said.

The alleged plotters envisaged destroying the entire airport and blowing up part of the New York suburb of Queens by attacking a major fuel line.

"This could have been a tragedy that rivalled 9/11," said Republican congressman Peter King, who sits on Congress's Homeland Security committee, and lives near JFK Airport.

A spokesman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said security agencies would examine the plot and liaise with their US colleagues to determine if the men had any links with Australia.

He said there had already been detailed threat assessments performed on Australia's airports and fuel facilities, but authorities would re-examine these if the US plot revealed any weaknesses.

In raids at the weekend (June 2-3), and after more than 12 months surveillance, authorities arrested Russell Defreitas, a US citizen native to Guyana, and a former JFK employee who had worked as a cargo handler. He was in custody in Brooklyn on June 3.

Two other men, Abdul Kadir, of Guyana, and Kareem Ibrahim, of Trinidad and Tobago, are in custody in Trinidad. A fourth man, Abdel Nur, of Guyana, was still being sought.

All four have been charged with conspiring to attack the airport, one of US's busiest, by targeting fuel supply tanks and a 64km pipeline that winds its way from Linden, New Jersey, to JFK and through residential areas including Brooklyn and Queens.

But the cell had been infiltrated by an informant and the criminal complaint included transcripts of taped conversations of ringleader Defreitas, who spoke about pulling off the kind of terror spectacular that the US continues to fear, but thanks to beefed-up counter terror operations since 9/11 has so far managed to avoid.

"To hit John F. Kennedy, wow, they love John F. Kennedy, like he's the man. If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It's like you can kill the man twice," Defreitas was recorded saying.

Authorities said the cell was motivated by hatred toward the US, Israel and the West. Defreitas was recorded saying "Muslims always incur the wrath of the world while Jews get a pass." He also spoke of being chosen by Allah for the task.

Reports in the US quoted a former neighbour who described him as a divorcee who had been obsessed by money-making schemes until he converted to Islam.

A spokeswoman for the White House said the President had been updated regularly on the plot and said the involvement of Trinidadian and Guyana authorities was an example of co-operation on counter terrorism.

According to the authorities the co-conspirators went to JFK airport on at least four occasions, held numerous meetings, conducted video surveillance and consistently worked to refine their plot and went to elaborate lengths to finance it.

There was no immediate connection made to al-Qaeda but Kadir, who is a Muslim imam and former Guyanese MP, was arrested in Trinidad for attempting to secure money for "terrorist operations", a Guyanese police commander was quoted as saying.

Kadir left parliament last year. Muslims make up about nine per cent of the former Dutch and British colony's 770,000 population, mostly from the Sunni sect.

Trinidad and Tobago has also been subject to homegrown Muslim extremist terror threats.

In 1990 the Trinidad-based Muslim group Jamaat al-Muslimeen, founded by Yasin Abu Bakr, bombed police headquarters and attacked the parliament in an unsuccessful coup attempt in which 24 people were killed and hundreds wounded.

New York police commissioner Ray Kelly said the plot proved that "once again would-be terrorists have put New York city in their cross-hairs".

But he said the fuel line that the would-be terrorists had targeted was high on the list of the US counter-terrorism efforts since it was a critical piece of infrastructure that is the "feeding tube that feeds international and national commerce at JFK and La Guardia airports".

"We in New York city focus on terrorism every day because we must. And what this case underscores is that New York City is on the terrorist must-do list," Commissioner Kelly said. He said what made the case different was the ties to the Caribbean, a region which barely ranks a mention on the 2006 US State Department country-by-country terrorism report.

The arrests mark the latest in a series of alleged homegrown terrorism plots targeting American landmarks. A year ago, seven men were arrested in what officials called the early stages of a plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and destroy FBI offices and other buildings. A month later, authorities broke up a plot to bomb underwater New York train tunnels. And six people were arrested a month ago in an alleged plot to unleash a bloody rampage on Fort Dix in New Jersey.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said the latest plot was only in its planning stages and at no point was anyone in imminent danger.