US threat to send Britons home

America is threatening to return up to 40 alleged al Qaeda fighters to Britain, presenting the Government with a security, legal and diplomatic nightmare.

The Britons, three held at Camp X-Ray in Cuba and the rest still in Afghanistan, were captured during and after the campaign to topple the Taliban.

Elements of the Bush administration want Britain to accept responsibility for the prisoners. Ministers and security sources are deeply unhappy, and are strongly urging Tony Blair to forestall any formal request from Washington.

Whitehall today denied any formal bargaining over the prisoners' fate. But sources confirmed that urgent and anxious talks are already under way between Downing Street, the Government's law officers, the security services and the Metropolitan Police.

The problems begin with where to hold the detainees - described by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as the most dangerous of the dangerous terrorists - followed by how and with what they could be charged.

"What do you do with these people, if you get them back here?" demanded a security source. "Most of them are people who have simply been fingered by some Northern Alliance character in Afghanistan as a member of al Qaeda. It would be incredibly difficult to marshal evidence against them that would last five minutes at the Old Bailey.

"On the other hand, it would be disastrous politically if you were forced just to pat these guys on the head when they land here, and send them home to Leicester or Croydon."

Downing Street was cautious today about the likelihood of their being sent home for trial. The Prime Minister's spokesman made it clear they have not yet been charged, are still being interrogated and would only come back at the request of the US, adding that he did not want to prejudice the case.

Mr Blair has called in the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, to seek a way through a legal minefield. Whatever route is chosen, it looks as though the suspects can only be brought to trial if the Crown Prosecution Service finds there is a real prospect of guilt on the charges laid against them.

Ministers are also wary of possible objections from human rights organisations, and the dangers of inflaming Muslim opinion in this country.

Meanwhile, the brothers of Shafiq Rasul, 24, a Briton being held at Camp X-Ray, have called for his return saying he is not an al Qaeda supporter and must have been "brainwashed".

Rasul is being held with Asif Iqbal, 20, after they were seized in Afghanistan having flown out shortly after 11 September. The pair grew up together in Tipton, West Midlands. Today allegations emerged that they were members of a violent "antiracist" gang at school.