Police interrogating al-Qaida suspects

Pakistan has made no decision on the extradition of Ramzi Binalshibh, the September 11 plotter who was arrested last week in a joint operation by US and Pakistani intelligence, an Interior Ministry official said today.

However, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that "as a matter of principle", Pakistan routinely hands over al-Qaida suspects to the United States.

Binalshibh and at least nine other al-Qaida operatives remained under interrogation by Pakistani and US intelligence agencies, four days after they were captured in a shootout in a residential area of Karachi, the official said.

US authorities were primarily responsible for questioning the suspects, he said, but they technically remained in Pakistani custody.

Germany has said it was requesting the extradition of Binalshibh for his part in a Hamburg-based al Qaida cell that planned the September 11 attacks last year in the United States.

The cell included Mohammed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the hijackers and one of the pilots who destroyed the World Trade Centre.

Binalshibh has claimed to be the coordinator of the four simultaneous hijackings.

The Interior Ministry official said extradition papers "are on our desk", but a decision had not yet been taken. He did not specify whether the request came from Germany.

No public indictment has been issued against Binalshibh in the United States.

But he has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case of Zacharias Moussaoui, the designated 20th hijacker who was arrested before September 11.

Binalshibh could be charged in a US court, or the government may ask Pakistan to hand him over as an enemy combatant, which would bypass stringent US legal requirements.

Should Germany gain custody of Binalshibh, it would complicate any subsequent request by the United States to seize him. Germany, like other European Union partners, customarily refuses to send prisoners to countries where they could face the death penalty.

However, the Pakistanis have generally allowed US requests to take priority in al-Qaida cases.

Binalshibh has refused to admit his identity, insisting his name was Abdullah, the Pakistani official said.

But US officials in Washington said they were convinced the man seized Wednesday - the anniversary of the September 11 attacks - is Binalshibh, and a Pakistani officials said there were "very, very strong suspicions" one of their captives was the wanted Yemeni.

Pakistan said a second high-level al-Qaida figure was also captured last week, but have refused to identify him by name or nationality.

Speculation focused on one of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden’s chief lieutenants, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was believed to be in Pakistan.