FRENCH prosecutors got their hands on one of their most wanted terrorist suspects after ten years when Britain extradited Rachid Ramda to Paris last night.

Mr Ramda, 35, who is accused of masterminding a series of bombings on the Paris Métro in 1995, was flown to Le Bourget airport and handed over to waiting police. He was due to appear in court last night.

The protracted legal battle in Britain over Mr Ramda’s fate had strained relations between the two governments, with security chiefs in Paris accusing Britain of being a haven for Islamic militants.

Mr Ramda’s return appeared to catch French officials by surprise. Pascal Clement, the Justice Minister, said that he learnt of the decision only as the Algerian-born radical was on his way to a London airport under armed guard.

He is the first terror suspect Britain has handed over since the September 11 attacks, despite pledges by Tony Blair to speed up extraditions.

The decision to expel Mr Ramda came only hours after the High Court in London ruled that all legal appeals by him were exhausted. He had been Britain’s longest-serving extradition prisoner. His fate has been brought up dozens of times by French diplomats and government officials, and became an irritant in bilateral ties.

Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister, 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.

Mr Ramda is alleged to be a leading member of Algeria’s outlawed Armed Islamic Group who helped to finance a series of attacks on the Métro, including a bombing at Saint-Michel station that killed 8 people and injured 150.

The bombers then tried to derail a TGV high-speed train travelling from Lyons to Paris.

Mr Ramda fled to Britain and applied for asylum under an assumed name. Since his arrest in November 1995 he used a wide array of legal means to resist extradition.

He is wanted in France under four arrest warrants, three relating to the 1995 bombings and one for “criminal conspiracy in relation with a terrorist enterprise”. He faces life imprisonment if convicted. In 1993 he was sentenced to death in absentia in Algeria over an attack on Algiers airport that left 9 dead and 123 wounded.

Other countries will be hoping that his expulsion speeds up extraditions from Britain. Washington is still waiting on the extradition of three men linked to the bombings of two of its embassies in East Africa in 1998. Spain is also seeking the extradition of three men.

DEATH ON METRO

Mr Ramda, suspected of financing the bombing, was jailed in Britain in 1995