Chicago, Dec 10 (IANS) Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley pleaded not guilty to charges that he planned the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks that killed 166 people.

Son of a Pakistani diplomat and an American socialite mother, Headley, 49, appeared Wednesday before US District Judge Harry Leinenweber in Chicago for an arraignment that lasted only about three minutes. He then was led away, guarded by a phalanx of federal marshals.

Headley, who has been cooperating with authorities as they investigate his role in the Mumbai attacks, could change his plea at a later date.

On his first court appearance since his October arrest by US authorities, Headley was clad in the bright orange jumpsuit of a federal prisoner and wore a grey sweatshirt under it.

Leinenweber set Jan 12 for the next hearing in the case.

Headley was born in the US, but spent much of his childhood in Pakistan where he was raised by his Pakistani father.

Meanwhile FBI Director Robert Mueller came to Chicago Wednesday morning for a briefing on the Headley case and is expected to leave afterward, Chicago Sun Times reported.

Headley was charged Monday with conducting surveillance on locations around Mumbai that later became the targets of bloody attacks blamed on members of the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT.)

A conviction on the charge of conspiracy to bomb public places in India that resulted in death carries a possible death penalty.

Headley is also charged with scheming to attack the Jyllands Posten newspaper in Denmark that in 2005 published 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad and triggering widespread anger in the Muslim world.

His co-defendant in the Denmark terror case, Pakistan born Canadian Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, with whom Headley had gone to school, was not charged in the Mumbai case.