Yard investigating 24 terror suspects for FBI

Up to 24 terror suspects are being investigated by Scotland Yard in connection with the 11 September attacks.

Anti-terrorist officers are also following up more than 200 other lines of inquiry linked to the terror networks behind the American atrocities.

The investigations are being run on behalf of America's Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has passed on the details of suspects and bank accounts to the British police.

Scotland Yard also disclosed yesterday that of the suspects already investigated, three people in Britain allegedly had "strong links" to the suicide hijackings and the support network of Osama bin Laden.

Commenting on the new suspects, Detective Chief Superintendent John Bunn, second in command of the anti-terrorist branch, said: "Names that have come forward from the FBI go into a couple of dozen."

He stressed that the 24, all of whom are believed to be living or staying in Britain, were not necessarily suspects in the 11 September attacks and many had weak links with the terrorists. They are thought to include British citizens who were sitting next to some of the hijackers, possibly during flights to America in the months before the terrorist attacks.

Det Chief Supt Bunn said the 24 names were "all being looked at and are the subject of investigations" and that Scotland Yard would be tracing and assessing them all.

He said that the three names with "very strong links" with terror attacks included the Algerian pilot Lotfi Raissi, who is awaiting extradition to the United States and is alleged to have trained some of the suicide hijackers.

Habib Zacarias Moussaoui, who lived in Brixton, south London, is alleged to have been the "20th hijacker" and is already in custody in America.

A third man who was arrested in Birmingham and released is still being investigated.

Since 11 September there have been more than 2,000 calls to Scotland Yard's special anti-terrorist hotline. The Yard is also beefing up its secret, alternative control centre in case its headquarters in London is destroyed by terrorists.

Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner, said the need to do so had been impressed on him by his recent visit to New York. The American police's command centre, which was based in the one of the World Trade Centre towers, was destroyed.

Sir John said: "There is a need for us to look at our evacuation planning and we are doing that in relation to some of the tall buildings in London."

Meanwhile, an investigation into a Muslim cleric who appears on a Treasury list of terrorist suspects has allegedly revealed a £180,000 bank balance despite years of benefit claims he has made in Britain.

Sheikh Abu Qatada, who was last week listed by the Treasury among a group of people suspected of "committing or providing material support for acts of terrorism", had his assets frozen and is the subject of a Department of Social Security investigation.

Mr Qatada, 40, had been claiming benefits ever since he came to Britain and settled in Acton, west London, in 1993, when he was granted political asylum. The Palestinian-born cleric is a convicted criminal in Jordan where, in his absence, he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998 for his alleged involvement in a series of explosions.