British say they're close to terror deportation pact

LONDON -- British officials said yesterday that they are nearing an agreement with Jordan that would allow Britain to deport Jordanians accused of extremist links. It is one of the government's most significant efforts to tighten anti-terrorist measures after the London bombings of two weeks ago.

Britain is likely to seek similar arrangements with other countries, including some in North Africa. The Jordan agreement had been in the works for several months; it was accelerated, the officials said, after the attacks on July 7 on London's transit system that killed 56 people.

The preliminary agreement with Jordan, which gives Britain a written promise that deportees will not be subject to torture, represents a step by Britain toward US tactics in the war on terrorism. The United States sought such assurances in the transfers of suspects to such countries as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

British officials said such agreements are necessary because international conventions on torture normally forbid deportation to countries that routinely use torture in prisons. They are part of a package of new anti-terrorism procedures that the British government is pursuing, including legislation to outlaw ''indirect incitement" of terrorism, a move that targets extremist clerics who glorify violence and radicalize Muslim youths.

''Obviously, the attacks of the 7th of July have meant that we pursued this . . . with greater urgency," a British official said on condition of anonymity, adding that some extremists in London were from Jordan. ''We are not going to tolerate people in the country who condone suicide bombings."

Prime Minister Tony Blair has been under pressure to act; opponents have questioned his support of the Iraq war. Muslim leaders called yesterday for an inquiry into social causes, such as anti-Muslim discrimination, that they say may have contributed to the attacks.

''The scale of disenchantment amongst Muslim youths is very clear to see," said Inayat Bungalwala of the Muslim Council of Britain.

Yesterday, Blair proposed hosting a conference on preventing Islamic extremism. He also told the House of Commons that he had asked Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, to rein in extremist Islamic schools. Three of four suicide bombers had ties to Pakistan and traveled there last year, authorities have said.

''We all know the roots of this go very, very deep," Blair said.

Pakistani police have arrested about 200 suspected extremists in what they called a crackdown on hate literature and banned activity. But government spokesmen say that none of those in custody have been linked to the bombings.

''No arrest has been made in Pakistan with regard to the London bombing," Brigadier General Javed Iqbal Cheema, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said by telephone from Islamabad.

He described the raids as a sweep on the producers of extremist pamphlets. He denied press reports from the region saying that a suspect with ''direct links" to the London bombings was in custody.

Investigators in Pakistan and Britain continued to scrutinize the cellphone records of the four suicide bombers for possible connections to Pakistan, and to explore possible ties with militant cells and religious schools.

''The large number of arrests reflects a certain failure by Musharraf to monitor the militancy," M.J. Gohel, director of the Asia Pacific Foundation, an independent research organization based in London.

In a related development, investigators have launched a hunt for a former senior aide to Abu Hamza al-Masri, one of Britain's most militant Islamic clerics, The New York Times reported, citing British, European and US intelligence and law enforcement officials. The Times said the former aide, Haroon Rashid Aswat, 31, is thought to have provided support to the four London bombers.

Charles M. Sennott of the Globe staff contributed. Material from the Associated Press was included.