SHEFFIELD, May 28: Britain will not allow radical leader Abu Hamza al Masri to be extradited to the United States unless there is a clear US undertaking that he will not be executed, British Home Secretary David Blunkett said on Friday.

Mr Blunkett additionally said that he would ideally like to see the extradition of Abu Hamza, who faces 11 terrorism-related charges in the United States, over within "weeks" rather than months or years.

Although some of the charges faced by the Egyptian-born carry a possible death sentence in the United States, Britain would abide by existing agreements that forbid the extradition of suspects if they face execution, Mr Blunkett confirmed.

"All I'd say is that we do have an agreement, and we all know it is essential to get the extradition (of Abu Hamza) agreed and that means that there will be an undertaking that whatever else the sentence, it will not lead to execution," Mr Blunkett said on a trip to the city of Sheffield, northern England.

The hook-handed preacher, who gained publicity in Britain after praising Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network and using sermons to call for jihad, was arrested at his west London home in a pre-dawn raid on Thursday.

He was later remanded in custody ahead of a formal extradition hearing in July over US charges which include complicity in the December 1998 kidnap of 16 Westerners in Yemen as well as setting up a terrorist training camp in the US state of Oregon.

Announcing the charge sheet in New York on Thursday, US Attorney General John Ashcroft appeared to leave open the possibility of execution, while US Justice Department officials said later that the situation still had to be resolved.

Mr Blunkett, on a campaign trip to Sheffield with British Prime Minister Tony Blair ahead of the June 10 European elections, said he had to be careful about commenting on the case.

"The way in which politics in the United States relates to the judicial process is different to in the UK," he told AFP. "I am being extra cautious in what I am saying in order not to upset the current process.

"I want to ensure that we get the extradition agreed and processed as quickly as possible within the bounds of the human rights of the individual concerned." Mr Blunkett stressed that he would ideally like the case to be dealt with quickly.

"We were having to deal with three, four years" in past extradition cases, he said. "I want to get it (Abu Hamza's case) over with in weeks, but we have an independent judiciary and independent court system.

"I hope they will find it possible to speed that up and to make sure that we can respond to this request in a way that reflects the seriousness of the charges." Abu Hamza has become a hate figure to many British tabloid newspapers, his notoriety increased by a distinctive appearance which includes a steel hook to replace a hand the cleric says he lost clearing mines in Afghanistan.

The government has faced calls for years to throw Abu Hamza - a British citizen since 1981 - out of the country for his anti-Western sermons at north London's Finsbury Park mosque, which included expressing pleasure at the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Worshippers gathered at the mosque for Friday prayers heard a spokesman read out a statement condemning Abu Hamza's detention. -AFP