Italy to extradite UK bomb suspect today

Italy will extradite to Britain today one of the suspected bombers in the July 21 attack on London's transport system, legal and judicial sources said.

Ethiopian-born Hamdi Issac, also known as Osman Hussein, was seized in Rome a week after the July 21 attacks, which killed no one but brought chaos to London exactly two weeks after suicide bombers had killed 52 people in the British capital.

He has admitted to taking part in the strike but has said the action was meant to scare people, not kill them. An Italian court ordered his extradition on September 13.

Meanwhile, Spain will reject German requests for fast-track extraditions after Germany's top court refused to hand over a suspected al Qaeda financier to Madrid, Spain's High Court ruled yesterday.

The ruling is a blow to the European Union arrest warrant introduced to speed up the handover of suspects, one of the EU's most significant security initiatives since the September 11 attacks on US cities in 2001.