THE ruins of the World Trade Centre were still burning when Tony Blair and David Blunkett appeared before the cameras to pledge that they would speed up the extradition of terrorist suspects sheltering in Britain.

However, not one has since been extradited from Britain, despite the repeated requests of more than a dozen friendly governments.

Ministers blame legal delays for the continuing failure to meet the Prime Minister’s promise. The cost to the taxpayer for legal aid runs to at least £7 million.

The case of one Saudi-born suspect, who is wanted by the United States for allegedly masterminding suicide bomb attacks, has cost more than £750,000. Some suspects have been fighting extradition from Britain for seven years.

On September 30, 2001, Mr Blair said that action would be taken within six weeks, adding: “We cannot have a situation in which it takes years to extradite people.”

The number of extradition requests that Britain has received has not been disclosed, but at least ten men are thought to be in custody.

Requests have come from close allies in the War on Terror including the United States, France, India, Pakistan, Russia, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Turkey.

One diplomat in London, whose Government has been waiting six years for a suspect to be handed over for trial, said: “The system in the UK has now gone beyond farce. We keep being told the system will be revised, laws changed, but nothing happens.

“The frustration is that we are powerless to do anything. In the meantime, terrorist trials in my country are held up because key figures are stuck in Britain.”

Other countries complain that the British authorities have refused even to arrest some men whom they have identified as having terrorist links.

The list of suspects includes alleged fundraisers and those allegedly involved in recruiting suicide bombers as well as some of al-Qaeda’s most influential figures.

Three people on the wanted list are accused of playing pivotal roles in the lorry bomb attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 in which 231 people were killed.

The family of a girl aged 4, whose father was killed in the attack in Nairobi, has condemned Britain’s failure to extradite these suspects.

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