May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Zacarias Moussaoui, who was sentenced to life in prison last week for conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks, sought permission today to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial in an effort to prove he wasn't part of the plot.

``I now see that it is possible that I can receive a fair trial even with Americans as jurors,'' Moussaoui said in court papers filed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. He said his claim during the trial that he was a member of the plot to crash planes into buildings on Sept. 11 was a ``complete fabrication.''

His defense lawyers said in a footnote to today's filing that they realize defendants are prohibited from withdrawing a plea after sentencing. They said they were filing the request ``given their problematic relationship with Moussaoui, of which the court is well aware.''

Moussaoui, 37, the only person charged in the U.S. in connection with the attacks, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in April 2005 and was sentenced to life in prison on May 4. Prosecutors had sought a death sentence in the two-month trial. Moussaoui testified against his lawyers' advice that he and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid planned to hijack a jetliner and fly it into the White House.

In today's court filing, Moussaoui said he never met hijacker pilot Mohamed Atta and that while he ``may have seen a few of the other hijackers'' he didn't know about their operation. He said he was ``extremely surprised'' when the jury in Virginia didn't sentence him to death and that he now realizes the jury system was ``more complex than I assumed.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurie Asseo in Washington at lasseo1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 8, 2006 15:44 EDT