PARIS, October 12, 2009 (AFP) - French magistrates were on Monday expected to charge a scientist from a nuclear lab that studies the "Big Bang" at the dawn of the universe with having Al-Qaeda links, judicial officials said.

The 32-year-old engineer, who had been working with the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), was arrested on Thursday last week by French police intelligence officers.

It was not yet clear what offences the suspect would be charged with, but officials said investigators monitoring the Internet had intercepted contacts between him and Al-Qaeda's North African offshoot.

Last week, investigators said that in communications with known Al-Qaeda militants he had expressed a desire to carry out attacks, but had "not got to the stage of carrying out material acts of preparation".

He was due to appear before investigating magistrate Judge Christophe Teissier in Paris later Monday to be placed under formal investigation, the first step under the French legal system towards a criminal trial.

The suspect's 25-year-old brother, who does not work at CERN, was also arrested last week but has since been released without charge.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research operates one of the world's leading nuclear research laboratories attached to a 27 kilometer (15 mile) tunnel running under the Franco-Swiss border just outside Geneva.

In the tunnel, a particle accelerator attempts to recreate the sub-atomic conditions present at the time of the Big Bang.

The lab confirmed on Friday that a physicist working on the Large Hadron Collider had been arrested on "suspicion of links to terrorist organisations."

It added, however, that "he was not a CERN employee and performed his research under a contract with an outside institute. His work did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism."

Nevertheless, reports have suggested the arrest of a scientist with alleged Al-Qaeda ties will increase fears that the Islamist militant group is seeking weapons technology or planning to attack nuclear targets.