The United States is warning its business travellers against visiting Europe after intelligence sources said Al Qaida was planning a "Mumbai-style attack".
Officials in Washington, backed by their counterparts in Britain, said a plot to launch a commando attack on a European capital was being organised in Pakistan and directed by Osama Bin Laden.
US and UK intelligence warned that Paris and Berlin were most likely to be targeted by terrorists, though the entire European region was said to be at risk.
Leaks to the US media have suggested that eight Germans and two British brothers were involved in the plot, with others currently hiding in Pakistan.
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Foreign Secretary William Hague have said the terror threat within the UK remained "severe".
But one travel manager - employed by a major US firm - speaking at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives' Global Education Conference in Berlin last night said he was not overly concerned by the travel advice.
"There is more chance of me falling and injuring myself in the bath tub. Or, even worse, there is more chance of me injuring myself because of drinking to much. In fact, I'm worried more about Bin drinking the Bin Laden."
There was a heavy police presence in and around the streets of Berlin city centre at the weekend, primarily because hundreds of thousands of people were celebrating the twentieth anniversary of German reunification. However, local television reports said a bolstered number of officers were armed and on high alert because of the terrorist threat.
Martin Ferguson reporting from Berlin