British police charged three men with terrorism offences yesterday over threats to kill Prime Minister Gordon Brown posted on a militant Islamic website.

Lancashire police said they had charged Ishaq Kanmi, 22, with soliciting murder and belonging to a banned group - al-Qaeda. Abbas Iqbal, 23, and 21-year-old Ilyas Iqbal were charged with disseminating banned publications.

Two others remained in custody, police said.

The three men who were charged, all from Blackburn in northern England, were arrested at Manchester airport earlier this month.

They were held after an investigation into threats posted on an Islamic militant website in January by a group calling itself al-Qaeda in Britain.

Mr Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair were suggested as targets of suicide attacks unless Britain withdrew its troops from Iraq and released Muslims imprisoned in Britain.

British police have been on high alert after co-ordinated suicide attacks on London's transport system in July 2005 killed 52 people.

Several other plots have been uncovered or have failed, including attempted car bombings in Glasgow and London last year.