Rachid Ramda was today sentenced to ten years in prison for bankrolling an Algerian terror group which bombed the Paris Metro in 1995, killing eight people and injuring 200.

Ramda's short trial began a few weeks after he was returned to France from Britain in December, following an extradition battle which lasted for more than a decade.

The sentence is the maximum which can be imposed for the charges, which related only to the preparation of the attacks by Armed Islamic Group (GIA), a banned Algerian terror organisation. Ramda, 36, now faces a second trial for his alleged role in carrying out bombings, for which he faces life imprisonment.

Ramda fled to Britain and applied for asylum under an assumed name soon after the outlawed group carried out its worst attack, an attempt to derail a TGV high-speed train travelling from Lyons to Paris.

Since his arrest in November 1995 he has used a wide array of legal means to resist extradition.

In 1993 he was sentenced to death in absentia in Algeria over an attack on Algiers airport that left 9 dead and 123 wounded.

Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister, had earlier lobbied Mr Blair for a speedy resolution to the saga in their first meeting after the July 7 bombings in London.

"Can you imagine how the British would react if France caught the alleged moneyman behind the July 7 bombings, and ten years later he was still fighting extradition?" said a former senior officer with the General Directorate for External Security, France's foreign intelligence service.

The Metro bombings were carried out between July and November 1995, killing 8 and injuring 170. The bombs consisted of explosives and nails.

Responsibility was claimed by the Armed Islamic Group, which was engaged in guerrilla war against the Algerian authorities. One of the suspects, Ali Touchent, was killed in Algiers in 1997.

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