(Adds Australian government comment, defence lawyer quote)

By Mick Tsikas

MELBOURNE, Sept 15 (Reuters) - An Australian jury found a Muslim cleric and five of his followers guilty on Monday of planning to stage a "violent jihad" in Melbourne in 2005 to force Australian troops out of Iraq.

But the jury in Australia's biggest terrorism trial acquitted four other Muslim men and could not decide on the fate of two others after deliberating for four weeks, court officials said.

The prosecutor told the Victoria state Supreme Court that the group had planned to attack a grand final football match in Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne, attended by 97,000 fans. The attack did not take place.

The jury heard that Muslim cleric Abdul Benbrika, 48, and his followers planned the bomb attack on an Australian Football League (AFL) grand final, but security raids on the homes of some group members forced them to change their target.

Australia has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil, but more than 90 Australians were killed in bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali since 2002.

Australia withdrew its 550 combat troops from Iraq in June 2008, but still has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the convictions were the most successful terrorism prosecutions in Australia.

"The real prospect of conviction and imprisonment will hopefully open their eyes to what terrorism really is, nothing more than criminal behaviour at its most base and brutal level," McClelland told a news conference.

McClelland said it would be naive for Australia to rule out a home-grown terror attack, saying the current terror warning was at medium, but said the prosecution demonstrated that security agencies were doing their job. But he said Australia needed to do more to counter radicalisation of Muslims and young Australians.

"If we want to be in a situation where our children and grandchildren aren't feeling threatened by terrorism, that is the area that we need to occupy some space in," he said.

BIN LADEN GREAT MAN

Benbrika was found guilty of leading and being a member of an unnamed terrorist body, while his five followers were guilty of being members of a terrorist group.

Submissions for sentencing will be heard in November.

The prosecutor told the trial that Benbrika had praised al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a "great man" and told his followers that killing women and children was permissible.

One of the group had discussed during a religious lesson killing then Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch ally and friend of U.S. President George W. Bush, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor said literature on how to make bombs, video tapes with messages from bin Laden and videos of beheadings were seized from the men's homes during police raids.

But defence lawyers said the 12 men were not terrorists and did not have explosives or other weapons.

The lawyers said secretly taped conversations between Benbrika and the other men reflected their frustration at the treatment of Muslims in the Middle East. The judge told jurors not to let prejudices towards Muslims cloud their judgment.

After the verdicts were delivered, the four men found not guilty hugged and patted each other on the back before walking free from the court.

Outside the court, defence lawyer Remy Van de Wiel praised the democratic system. "It's so wonderful to live in a democracy where a jury obviously pays this level of attention to matters like this and works this hard," he told reporters. (Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Paul Tait)

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