The last big attack was a series of suicide bombings in the economic capital, Casablanca, in 2003 which killed 45 people, and since then security services say they have rounded up more than 60 radical cells.

MAP quoted an Interior Ministry statement but gave no details of the planned attacks. However, it said the group had 11 members and that its members have radical views.

The members of the group were in custody and would soon appear before a judge, the agency said.

The Moroccan government carried out mass arrests after the Casablanca bombings but in recent years has shifted to more targeted surveillance that security experts say has helped the government to prevent several planned attacks.

More than 1,000 militants are now held in Moroccan jails, many of them after trials described by defense lawyers and judicial reform campaigners as unfair and based on flimsy evidence.

The government insists only genuine criminals are imprisoned on solid information after fair trials.

The Interior Ministry statement quoted by MAP said the men arrested for planning the attacks were jihadists.

This group, which is distinct from Al-Qaeda, usually targets government officials and secular intellectuals in the Muslim world rather than following the Al-Qaeda tactic of trying to attack foreign targets.