A Briton arrested in Zambia two weeks ago on suspicion of terrorism was deported yesterday to Britain, where he is reportedly wanted in connection with last month's deadly bomb attacks in London.

Haroon Aswat "left at 9:00 am (0700GMT) from Lusaka international airport to Britain in a chartered plane," a source at the airport said.

Aswat, 31, has been named in US and British media reports as the alleged mastermind behind the July 7 blasts that killed 56 people including four suicide bombers, but British police have not confirmed that he is wanted in connection with the attacks.

US authorities have also reportedly sought to question Aswat over alleged attempts to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon.

US media said on July 22, the day after four abortive attacks on London's transport system, that US police and intelligence agencies were taking part in the hunt for Aswat.

They said that the four suicide bombers behind the July 7 attacks had made about 20 calls to him on his mobile telephone.

Aswat, who spent time in South Africa and Botswana before entering Zambia on July 6, had been on a watch list of Western intelligence agencies who tipped off Zambian authorities.

Two Sunday newspapers reported that Saudi officials alerted Britain several weeks before the deadly July 7 bombings in London that a terror attack was being planned.

The Observer quoted a security official in the Saudi capital Riyadh as saying that information was passed to MI5 and MI6, Britain's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies respectively.

The Sunday Telegraph quoted the Saudi ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki al-Faisal, as saying that details of a possible conspiracy to attack London -- apparently extracted from terrorism suspects in Saudi Arabia -- had been given to British intelligence.

"There were reports passed on to your authorities several months ago (in April-May) in general terms of a heightened expectancy of attacks on London," said the ambassador, a former chief of Saudi intelligence.

Security sources played down the reports. The Observer quoted one source as "categorically" denying that any specific information had been received that could have averted the July 7 attacks.

The source said they "did not recognise" the details of the Saudi claims, which came to light one month to the day after the attacks.

There was no immediate comment from the Foreign Office or the Home Office, but Prime Minister Tony Blair has previously rejected suggestions of an intelligence failure.

Fifty-six people were killed, including four apparent suicide bombers, in the July 7 morning rush-hour bombing of three Underground subway trains and a double-decker bus.

It was the deadliest attack ever in the British capital, and was followed two weeks later by an attempted copycat attack in which the explosives, stuffed into rucksacks, failed to go off.

Saudi security sources were reported Sunday to be investigating whether two al-Qaeda operatives were in phone contact with a British ringleader of the plotters of the July 7 bombings.

Money transfers were thought to have been made from Saudi Arabia to Britain in the first six months of the year through businesses in the two countries, it was reported.

The Observer and the Sunday Telegraph said the investigations revolve around two Moroccans, identified as Kareem al-Majati and Younes al-Hayari, both alleged to have been senior figures in Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

The two were killed in separate shoot-outs in Saudi Arabia in the weeks before July 7.

The Observer quoted a Saudi official as saying: "It was clear to us that there was a terror group planning an attack in the United Kingdom. We passed on all this information to both MI5 and MI6."