Police get more time to question terrorism suspects

LONDON (Reuters) - A judge has given police a further week to question 11 men detained in raids across northwestern England on Wednesday and suspected of involvement in an al Qaeda plot, police said on Saturday.

A 12th man, an 18-year-old, has been released into the custody of the UK Borders Agency. Any decision on deporting him would be up to the Borders Agency, a police spokeswoman said.

The 12 men include 11 Pakistani nationals, all but one of whom were in Britain on student visas. The 11, still being held at various locations across Britain, are aged between 22 and 41.

Searches are continuing at 10 addresses, police said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the case involved a "very big terrorist plot" that security officials had been tracking for some time.

The raids had to be brought forward because of a security blunder by Britain's top counter-terrorism officer, Bob Quick, who was photographed carrying a secret document on the operation. He resigned over the security breach.

The operation has caused a diplomatic spat between Britain and Pakistan, with Brown calling on Pakistan to do more "to root out the terrorist elements in its country."

Most terrorism plots in Britain since September 11, 2001, have had links to Pakistan, including suicide bombings which killed 52 people on London's underground and bus network in July 2005.

Pakistan's top diplomat in Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, said on Friday Pakistani authorities could help carry out background checks on student visa applicants but had not been allowed to.

"It is at your end, you have to do something more," Hasan told BBC television.

Immigration minister Phil Woolas called Hasan's criticism a "red herring."

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Jonathan Wright)