A Pakistani and a US citizen who shared a hatred of the United States were arrested for planning to blow up a New York subway station near the Republican national convention site, police said on Saturday.
There was no evidence the two men belong to al Qaeda or any international terror group, the pair had no explosives and were not close to being able to attack when arrested on Friday, city police commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
"It is clear they had the intention to cause damage and kill people," Kelly told reporters. "Their motive was generally hatred for America."
With President George W. Bush's Republican party ready to begin its national convention at Madison Square Garden on Monday, the pair surveyed the Herald Square subway station, one block away, just last week on August 21.
But it did not appear that the men - 21-year-old Shahawar Matin Siraj of Pakistan, who works in an Islamic bookstore, and 19-year-old James Alshafay - were specifically intending to target the convention, Kelly said.
He said the men had been the target of a year-long investigation that recorded them discussing plans for an attack, and that they had made sketches and surveillance of a number of sites.
They had prepared information on three police stations, a jail, and the Verrazano bridge, one of the largest suspension bridges in the world, which connects the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island.
They had also considered two other subway stations at 42nd and 59th streets, he said.
"They obviously were talking about conducting a violent act."
He said they had mentioned businesses in the area of Herald Square but declined to give further details. The square is home to Macy's, one of the most famous department stores in the United States.
The men were arrested by federal authorities with help from a confidential police informant while a third person was not charged, Kelly said. They are facing federal charges and were to be arraigned later on Saturday.
"To the best of our knowledge, they are not connected to any international terrorist organisation," he said. He added that investigators were still going through tapes of their conversations.
A police source who asked not to be named told AFP that Siraj worked in an Islamic bookshop and that the men were arrested separately but at almost the same time on Friday afternoon.
New York City is under unprecedented security for the convention, with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators expected to flood the city for a massive demonstration against Bush on Sunday.
Bush's Democratic rivals have charged the president with trying to make political capital out of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, with the convention being held in New York close to their anniversary.
Fuelled by anger over the war in Iraq, demonstrators have a series of major events planned across the city. More than 250 cyclists were arrested on Friday for blocking a main city street.
"Obviously, government had to respond," Kelly said. He said the city's police force and federal authorities were prepared for anything.
"I have no question about our ability to carry out our mission," he said.