UK, Germany probe more suspects in "war on terror"

European authorities, on heightened alert since the September 11 US attacks, took fresh steps yesterday against suspected extremists.

Germany questioned three men allegedly linked to the al Qaeda cell that carried out the hijacked airliner attacks, Britain arrested seven people and Italy reportedly sent 12 for trial, most for plotting chemical attacks.

In Germany, prosecutors questioned three men suspected of planning attacks and of supporting the al Qaeda cell in Hamburg which launched the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

They said they also searched six buildings including two Islamic centres in the towns of Muenster and Minden.

Prosecutors said two of the men were suspected of forming a group with the aim of launching attacks in Germany in the months after the World Trade Centre was destroyed.

The third was a suspected supporter of the al Qaeda cell based in Hamburg which is believed to have provided three of the September 11 suicide pilots.

The first trial anywhere of an alleged September 11 plotter is under way in Hamburg. Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded the maximum possible jail term of 15 years for Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan charged with helping the Hamburg al Qaeda cell.

Five Algerian men are also on trial in Germany suspected of belonging to the al Qaeda network.

In Britain, police arrested seven people in the latest of a series of counter-terrorism raids around the country.

The six men and one woman were arrested in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow, in an operation police said was linked to the arrest of seven North African men in December.

In Glasgow, police entered a flat in chemical protection suits and arrested a man and woman. Last month police found traces of ricin, a deadly toxin, at a north London apartment, but yesterday played down any direct link.

British anti-terrorist police have arrested over 300 people since the September 11 attacks on the United States.

In Italy, judicial sources said a judge sent 12 alleged Muslim "terrorists" for trial, including nine men suspected of plotting a chemical attack on the US embassy in Rome.

Last February, nine Moroccans were arrested with maps of the embassy and a cyanide compound that police suspect could have been turned into a lethal chemical bomb. A hole was later found carved into underground utility tunnels near the facility.

US officials have said they believe Italy is one of the European headquarters of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organisation.

More than 130 people have been seized in Italy on anti-terrorism grounds, but a lot of cases have disintegrated after an initial blaze of publicity, leaving police red-faced.