MIAMI (AFP) — US prosecutors on Thursday urged jurors to convict seven alleged homegrown terrorists, claiming they plotted to blow up buildings and bring down the US government with the help of the Al-Qaeda terror network.

"One of the missions of the seven defendants was to overthrow or wage war on the government of the United States," US Attorney Jacqueline Arango said in here closing arguments.

She claimed the seven members of an obscure religious sect "tried to create an unholy alliance with a terrorist organization."

Arango told the jurors that because the seven are accused of conspiracy, "it's the intent that is the crime."

"The government need not wait for buildings to come down or people to get shot to prove they are terrorists," she said.

She dismissed claims by the defendants had merely tried to scam Al-Qaeda out of tens of thousands of dollars."

"Tell them with your verdict that you don't the believe defendants were trying to rip off the deadliest terrorist group in the world," the prosecutor said.

The seven are accused of conspiring to provide assistance to Al-Qaeda, to carry out acts of terror and to bring down the US government.

They allegedly planned to blow up the 108-story Sears Towers in Chicago and other buildings including FBI offices in Miami, and shoot any survivors.

"They wanted to join forces with Al Qaeda for a mission that would be 'just as good or greater than 9-11'," Arango said in reference to a comment allegedly made by the group's leader, Narseal Batiste.

The 12 jurors were again shown secretly-taped video footage showing the defendants pledging an oath to Al-Qaeda, in the presence of an undercover FBI informant posing as a member of the terrorist network that claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

"Batiste tried to create an unholy alliance with a terrorist organization," said Arango.

But the defense lawyers argued that the accused feigned interest in carrying out attacks hoping to get money from a man pretending to be an Al-Qaeda operative, but who in reality was an informant who pushed the alleged plot along to get paid by the FBI.

"I was behind a couple of months on the rent, the children had no clothes," Batiste, a father of four, testified. "There was no food for a couple of days. There was a lot of pressure on me at that time."

The defendants, known as the "Liberty City Seven" after the predominantly African-American Miami neighborhood where they lived, were members of a faction of the Moorish Science Temple, a sect that blends teachings of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Prosecutors said the whole plot was discovered after a man who had recently left Miami for his native Yemen called the FBI to say Batiste had asked him to get in touch with Al-Qaeda.

The man was flown back to Miami, infiltrated the group and later brought in another FBI informant, who posed as an Al-Qaeda member.

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