Hamza 'was behind ambush death plot'

They were among 16 Westerners, including another nine Britons, abducted when gunmen ambushed their vehicles in Yemen in 1998.

The hook-handed preacher wanted the hostages used as bargaining chips to secure the release of six of his followers - including his stepson -being held in Yemen on terror charges, it was alleged.

But the abduction turned into a bloodbath when Yemeni security services stormed a mountain hideout and the kidnappers used hostages as human shields.

Hamza's alleged involvement was outlined at an extradition hearing at Woolwich Crown Court to decide whether he should be sent for trial in the U. S. on 11 terror charges.

The 48-year-old preacher - serving seven years for race hate crimes - is also accused of trying to set up a terror training camp in the U.S. and of sending British Muslims to Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.

They include 24-year-old Feroz Abbasi who spent four years in Guantanamo Bay after being captured allegedly fighting with the Taliban.

Hugo Keith, for the U.S. authorities, told the court Hamza was the head of the radical Islamist group the Supporters of Sharia.

He helped plan the kidnapping of 16 Western tourists - 12 Britons, two Americans and two Australians - after six members of his group, including his stepson Mohsen Ghailan, were arrested in Yemen with explosives and weapons.

Mr Keith said Hamza supplied the hostage takers with a satellite telephone to communicate their demands to the outside world and was in contact with them from London on the day of the kidnap.

Hamza - who was too unwell to attend court after an operation to remove gangrene from the stump of his left arm - is said to have given detailed advice on how to carry out the operation.

Two months before the incident he had issued a warning on his website to stay out of Yemen.

The tourists' convoy of vehicles was held up by gunmen wielding Kalashnikov rifles. They were told: "You are being taken because our friends have been taken."

Hours later, the kidnappers used the hostages as human shields when their hideout was stormed by 200 Yemeni soldiers in a botched rescue operation.

Britons Margaret Whitehouse, a 52-year- old teacher, nurse Ruth Williamson, 34, and Durham university lecturer Peter Rowe, 60, were killed with a 35-year-old Australian.

Egyptian-born Hamza was jailed for seven years in February last year for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred during sermons at Finsbury Park mosque in North London.

He would not be sent for trial in the U.S. until his release - October next year at the earliest.

The intelligence services believe he was responsible for radicalising hundreds of young British Muslims and facilitating journeys for recruits to attend terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

London suicide bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer both spent time living at the mosque before attending such camps.

Mr Keith told the court that Hamza provided funds for Abbasi, a former computer studies student, from Croydon, South London, to attend an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in March 2001.

Abbasi, who had also lived at the Finsbury Park mosque, was given a letter of introduction from Hamza to senior Al Qaeda figures and is said to have met Osama Bin Laden's second in command, Ayman Al Zawahiri.

Abbasi was captured later that year and taken to Guantanamo. He was released with three other Britons in 2005.

Mr Keith said other charges related to an attempt by Hamza to set up a camp in the U.S. which would have offered training in firing weapons, making bombs, hand-to-hand combat and martial arts.

He said Hamza had sent two associates to inspect a remote property in Oregon.

For Hamza, Alun Jones QC said much of the evidence was unreliable because it may have been obtained under torture.

The hearing continues.