London, Sep 14 - Naming Pakistan as the country from where they were 'controlled', a British judge Monday sent three men to jail for life for plotting conspiracy to blow up liquid bombs on flights from Britain to North America.

Ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, was jailed for at least 40 years, plot 'quartermaster' Assad Sarwar, 29, for at least 36 years and Tanvir Hussain, 28, for at least 32 years.

'You have embraced Islamic extremism and it is that burning extremism that has motivated you throughout this conspiracy and is likely to drive you again,' judge Richard Henriques told the three men at Woolwich Crown Court in London.

E-mails submitted as evidence in the trial had shown that 'the ultimate control of this conspiracy lay in Pakistan', the judge said.

Their aim was a terrorist outrage to 'stand alongside' the 9/11 attacks in history, Henriques said, calling the plot 'the most grave and wicked conspiracy ever proven within this jurisdiction'.

The trial heard that at the time of his arrest, Ahmed Ali, of Walthamstow, east London, had identified seven US and Canada-bound flights that were to be attacked within a two-and-a-half-hour period.