Three still held by police in London

Search for suspects

Arrests have been made in Britain, the US, France, Belgium and Germany as part of the global investigation into the attacks on New York and Washington.

British anti-terrorist officers continued questioning three people yesterday, including a jet pilot, 27, who was reported to be taking additional training at Heathrow.

A fourth suspect, a man aged 29, was released. No charges have been brought.

Officers swooped on two addresses in Berkshire and west London, arresting the men and a woman aged 25. A man in his mid-40s was arrested in Birmingham. All four were taken to central London police stations for questioning, while the three properties were searched.

The arrests followed the transfers of four men ­ allegedly associated with Mr bin Laden and awaiting extradition to the US ­ to prisons outside London.

The US said its main line of inquiry concerned individuals linked to Al-Qa'edah, the organisation run by the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. But allegations are also surfacing in the US ­ so far not backed by hard evidence ­ that Iraq played a role in the attacks on 11 September.

The FBI has arrested at least 50 people in connection with the attacks so far, 33 of whom have been charged with immigration violations, though the FBI believes some have information on the attacks.

One man was charged with trying to fly into Chicago with an illegal passport and carrying airline uniforms on the day of the hijacking attacks, US authorities said late on Friday evening. Nageeb Abdul Jabar Mohamed Al-Hadi carried three passports from Yemen showing different names.

Three men from Algeria and Morocco arrested in Detroit last week are being held without bond until a preliminary hearing next week. The three, all termed resident aliens, were charged with conspiracy and possession of false identity papers. The FBI found airport uniforms, identification, maps and a diary indicating that they might have been planning attacks while in their flat.

Another man linked to the three, Nabil Al-Marabh, was taken into custody in Chicago on Wednesday. Mr Al-Marabh was one of about 200 people that the FBI said it wanted to question immediately after the attacks. As well as the investigation into individuals with ties to Mr bin Laden, there is also a steady drip-feed of US media reports, some from Israeli sources, pointing to an involvement by Iraq in the atrocities.

US reports alleged that Mr bin Laden was in contact with Iraqi government agents in the days before the terrorist attacks. "This is the basis for signs of state sponsorship," one US official told the right-of-centre Washington Times. Other reports, attributed to Israeli intelligence, have alleged that Mohamad Atta, believed to be one of the hijackers' leaders, had met Iraqi agents in Europe before the attack.

The US government has already claimed that a number of states were responsible for providing support to the hijackers, but hitherto these allegations have been limited to provision of logistical support and safe haven.

Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, confirmed that a number of the 19 suspected hijackers visited Britain en route to the US several months ago. A Scotland Yard spokesman said that officers would be trying to establish links between the detainees and the hijackers and determine the length of time they had spent in Britain.

The Metropolitan Police are not revealing the nationality of those arrested. Nor would they confirm or deny whether FBI agents were interviewing the three people, although Britain and the US are known to be pooling intelligence. British Met officers have already flown to New York to assist with the inquiry.

Sir John also said on Friday that London was on the highest peace-time security alert, with 1,500 extra officers patrolling the streets during the weekend, because offears of possible further terrorist assaults and in order to protect Muslims and mosques from hate attacks after incidents at several mosques in the UK last week.

Seven people were arrested near Paris on suspicion of belonging to extremist Islamic groups and planning attacks on US interests in France, police said on Friday.

Djamel Begal, an Algerian who has been in custody in the United Arab Emirates since July, allegedly confessed to planning an attack on the US embassy in Paris. He supplied details of his co-conspirators. Jean-Louis Bruguière, a French anti-terrorism judge, has flown to Dubai to interview him and sources say he is expected to request the man's extradition to France.

Mr Begal has also been linked with two men who were arrested 10 days ago in Brussels and who are suspected of planning attacks on US targets in Europe.

One of these men was a Tunisian suspected of having links with a radical Egyptian Islamic organisation. Anti-terrorism investigators in Belgium say that they discovered large quantities of chemicals ­ 100kg of sulphur and 50 litres of acetone, potentially for use as a bomb ­ above a kebab restaurant in Brussels after the two were arrested.

German officials issued arrest warrants for two men ­ Ramzi Binalshibh, 29, of Yemen, and Said Bahaji, 26, a German of Moroccan origin. They have beencharged with at least 5,000 counts of murder and forming a terrorist organisation. Both are suspected of helping to plot the New York and Washington attacks with three of the dead hijackers who had lived for a time in Hamburg.