Bombing suspect faked name and nationality to enter UK

Italian authorities said they expected the extradition of Hussain Osman would not take long, though his lawyer has said she will fight any extradition attempt.

Britain was set to deliver a formal request for the extradition of the suspect today.

Ethiopian-born Hamdi Issac changed his name to Hussain Osman and said he was a Somali when he arrived in London to request political asylum, said Carlo De Stefano, the head of Rome's anti-terror police.

Italian judges will have two months to decide whether to hand Osman over to the UK.

Osman, 27, the last of the four July 21 bombing suspects to be held, was arrested in a flat in Rome on Friday.

Meanwhile, thousands of police marksmen were on London's streets and rooftops again today after warnings that another team of suicide bombers is plotting a third attack on the Capital.

According to security sources the men are thought to be of Pakistani origin but born and raised in this country. They have links with the Leeds-based terrorist cell that staged the July 7 attacks, in which 56 people died.

The sources said the would-be bombers met at Finsbury Park mosque in north London, where some of the July 7 terrorists were known to have stayed.

There are reports that this team originally planned to strike last Thursday, which is why more than 6000 police were out in force at Underground stations.

Osman, who was born in Ethiopia but has a British passport, is suspected of trying to blow up a train near Shepherd's Bush station in west London.

He is believed to have left London Waterloo on a Eurostar train on July 26, travelling to Paris and Milan before arriving in Rome.

A legal expert familiar with the investigation said that Osman had admitted to a role in the attack but said it was only intended to be an attention-grabbing strike.

Osman told interrogators he was not carrying enough explosives even to "harm people nearby", the expert said.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said yesterday said that ministers were to investigate how Osman was able to leave the UK after the attempted bombing.

Meanwhile, six men and a woman remain in custody after being arrested during police raids in Brighton yesterday morning.

They are being held under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, or harbouring fugitives.

It brings the running total of those being held to 19 - among them all the men named as suspected failed suicide bombers.

Police are now focusing on finding those who helped plan and finance the attacks, as well as those of July 7.

But a police spokeswoman played down claims officers were hunting a third cell.

She said: "We are searching for other people in connection with this ongoing inquiry. We have never spoken about a third cell."

MET OFFERS COMPENSATION TO FAMILY OF BRAZILIAN SHOT DEAD BY POLICE

A METROPOLITAN Police officer has flown to Brazil to offer compensation to the family of the man shot dead after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.

John Yates, deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, is expected to agree an initial payment of tens of thousands of pounds to the parents of 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes, who died after police marksmen shot him eight times on July 22.

Legal experts have claimed the Met could end up paying out up to 570,000 in damages to the family, who live in poverty in Gonzaga, Brazil. Foreign Office sources have said the main purpose of today's trip was to apologise to the family on behalf of Yard commissioner Sir Ian Blair, but the officer is believed to offer an ex-gratia payment - meaning it will not affect the amount of compensation paid out over the shooting.