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BERLIN (AFP) - Germany's interior minister hit out Wednesday at travel warnings for visitors to Europe issued because of the risk of Al-Qaeda attacks, saying such tactics helped "terrorists" spread fear.

"We are taking things seriously. But public accompanying music is also something that terrorists use, because they want to spread fear," Thomas de Maiziere told radio station Deutschlandfunk.

"We are working without talking a lot."

This week the United States, Britain, Japan and Sweden issued alert warnings of the "possible terrorist attack" by Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups against their citizens travelling in Europe.

This followed reports in British and US media that said that an Al-Qaeda plot to carry out attacks in Britain, France and Germany, similar to the siege in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people, had been uncovered.

The source was a German citizen of Afghan descent being held in Afghanistan, the reports said, but a US official told AFP this week that the warning was based on a "growing body of information" collected over time.

He was one of an increasing number of Germans who authorities say are travelling to Pakistan's the tribal border region for training by Islamist militants, either to fight NATO forces or to return home and carry out attacks.

The man, named as Ahmed Siddiqui, is also reported to have known Mohamed Atta, one of the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and to have worshipped at the same mosque -- since closed -- in Hamburg.

A US drone strike this week in North Waziristan, a purported hideout for foreign and homegrown militants linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, killed five Germans, Pakistani security sources said.

German authorities in June put the number of people living in Germany who have attended such camps at around 200. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily reported on Wednesday that 30-40 Germans are currently in the tribal border region.

"After Britain, Germany appears now to be one of the most important European recruitment centres for Islamic extremists," the daily Die Welt said in an editorial on Wednesday.

"At the moment we have lots of indications, including from independent sources, about activities in the Pakistani border region or plans for Germany," de Maiziere said.

"We follow up all of these leads, we ratchet up our internal measures, we are in the closest possible contact with our partners. But we work more and seriously, rather than talk about it," he said.

"How I would react if there were (a concrete danger) would depend on the security situation, my assessment of it, because the security situation and dealing with the danger to the population have priority over public statements and the question of how one looks tactically."

The minister added that "no one should fool themselves that Germany is not also a target for terrorists," but that there were no "concrete indications of plans for any imminent attack."

Germany, which has around 4,800 soldiers in Afghanistan and a four-million strong Muslim community, has never suffered a "terror" attack.

In 2006, suitcases with homemade bombs inside were placed on two German trains but they failed to detonate, and in 2007 three Islamists planning to attack US targets in Germany were caught with explosive chemicals.

Ingo Peters, an expert in international relations at Berlin's Free University, said that Europeans and Americans had different assessments of the risks, partly because of the "trauma" of September 11, 2001.

"There is greater alarmism in the United States," Peters told AFP, adding: "Ninety percent of what is said publicly in America is for domestic consumption, not for the rest of the world."