A 24-year-old airport driver from Colorado has been charged with conspiring to set off bombs in the United States.
Afghan-born Najibullah Zazi was charged by the New York Grand Jury with planning to use "one or more weapons of mass destruction" in the attacks, the BBC reports.
US officials have also arrested and charged two other men over offences relating to unconnected bomb plots in Illinois and Texas, reports say.
A federal courthouse was targeted in Illinois, an office block in Dallas.
Mr Zazi is alleged to have received bomb-making training in Pakistan.
An imam, Ahmad Afzali, who was arrested along with Mr Zazi, has been charged with lying to investigators and released on $US1.5 million bail.
Mr Zazi's father, Mohammed, was also detained last Saturday. All three deny any involvement in the alleged plot.
