The bombers who attacked Brussels had intended to stage a terror attack in France before urgently switching their plans, prosecutors have said.
The perpetrators are said to have been scared off by how quickly the investigation into November's Paris attacks was catching up with them - so they decided to rush into an attack in the Belgian capital instead.
Prosecutors said in a statement: "The Federal Prosecution Office can confirm that numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again.
"Eventually, surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation, they urgently took the decision to strike in Brussels."
Police have been questioning Mohamed Abrini, who was arrested on Friday and has admitted, they said, to being the 'man in the hat' filmed on CCTV with two suicide bombers at Brussels airport.
He was pictured in the departure hall with Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui before the pair blew themselves up, killing 16 people.
Prosecutors added that after leaving the airport, Abrini had thrown his jacket in a litter bin and later sold his hat.
The 31-year-old is now among four people charged in Brussels with "participating in terrorist murders" in connection with the 22 March attacks.
Osama Kraiem is accused of being the man caught on CCTV briefly speaking to El Bakraoui's brother Khalid before the latter detonated explosives on a Brussels metro train, killing 16.
The 23-year-old Swedish national was also allegedly filmed in a shopping centre buying the luggage used in the airport bombings.
Europol says Abrini was filmed two days before November's Paris atrocities at a petrol station with another suspect, Salah Abdeslam, on the road to the French capital.
Abdeslam was detained last month, a few days before the Brussels attacks, and is now awaiting extradition to France.
His lawyer said he backed out from blowing himself up in Paris, where 130 people were killed in attacks on the Bataclan theatre, the Stade de France and a number of restaurants.
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