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By Phil Hirschkorn
CNN New York Bureau

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A federal grand jury has indicted a 37-year-old Algerian man, accusing him of playing a key role in a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport as a member of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden's terrorism network.

The eight-count indictment against Abu Doha was obtained Monday, said U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White. It follows the criminal complaint filed against Doha last month, just before his arrest on a U.S. warrant in London.

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The indictment charges Doha with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against Americans and conspiracy to commit terrorist acts transcending national boundaries; each charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison if Doha is convicted.

The indictment also charges Doha with providing material support to terrorists and foreign terrorist organizations.

Doha is accused of meeting with bin Laden in 1998 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, to coordinate activities between bin Laden's organization, al Qaeda, and a group of Algerians.

According to the indictment, Doha raised money to operate a camp dedicated to training the Algerians in the techniques of "jihad," or holy war.

One of those trainees was Ahmed Ressam, who sought to detonate a suitcase bomb at Los Angeles International Airport around New Year's 2000.

Ressam's plot was foiled when U.S. border agents stopped his car after he had crossed by ferry from British Columbia to Washington state and found it loaded with explosive chemicals and timing devices.

Convicted in an April trial, Ressam is now cooperating with the government and is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Testifying this summer in the trial of an accomplice, Montreal shopkeeper Mokhtar Haouari, Ressam named Doha as a gatekeeper to the Khalden camp in Afghanistan where Ressam underwent months of firearms and explosives training in 1998.

Haouari was convicted of giving Ressam a counterfeit driver's license and $3,000 to carry out the airport plot.

The indictment, relying on Ressam's information, says Doha participated in discussions with trainees about U.S. and Israeli targets to be hit by the end of 1999 in the United States and the Middle East.

The indictment says Doha gave Ressam money and a means to flee the United States for Algeria after completing his millennium bomb plot, and it says he provided money, means of communication, safe houses, and fake travel and identification documents to men seeking to attend the camps.

Upon his arrest, Ressam had a business card with Doha's phone number in London and calling cards that showed he had called the number as recently as 11 days earlier.

According to the charges, Doha's London apartment contained papers with notations for the same explosive chemical mixtures found in Ressam's car, fake passports, and passports with recent stamps for Pakistan, the gateway to Afghanistan.

Doha, who used the alias "Amar Makhlolif" in England, was arrested in February on suspicion of being connected to a plot to bomb a market in Strasbourg, France. He was released from custody until the U.S. complaint was filed July 2.

The United States has filed a request for Doha's extradition and proceedings are pending, said FBI spokesman Joe Valiquette.

Bin Laden, wanted for allegedly orchestrating the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, is living under the protection of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Three of the four men convicted in May for carrying out the embassy bombings told investigators they received religious and military training at bin Laden's camps.