Prime Minister Tony Blair

Home Secretary Charles Clarke, speaking to the House of Commons after a week of fury over the release of the prisoners, said "the guiding principle will be that foreign nationals guilty of criminality should expect to be deported".

Clarke meanwhile disclosed that the number of foreign convicts in British prisons has swelled to nearly 10,000 last year from 5,587 in 1987.

Clarke unleashed a furor last week when he acknowledged that 1,023 foreign convicts who should have been considered for deportation after serving their sentences were instead sent back into the community.

Fending off demands for his resignation, Clarke has promised to resolve a problem he said dated back to previous governments and clear up the backlog of prisoners who have been released.

Of the 1,023 cases, 574 cases were being considered for deportation, of which 554 have been completed, and in all 446 are to be deported, Clarke said.

However, members of the Conservative opposition seized on the fact that Clarke disclosed that only 32 of the 79 most serious offenders had so far been tracked down.

With Clarke saying that deporting another nine has been ruled out, a Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that the remaining 38 are still at large.

"We have got them in our sights but we still haven't got them under our control," the spokeswoman said. "We are continuing operations to bring them under control."

Clarke said he would publish a consultation paper by the end of May to set up a new system where foreign criminals "should expect to be deported". The government plans to expand a wider range of foreign offenders, he added.

Clarke was under more pressure following disclosures that a Somali wanted in connection with the murder of a policewoman who was investigating an armed robbery was considered for deportation months before she was gunned down.

Even though suspect Mustaf Jamma, 25, was not among the 1,023 foreign prisoners released without proper deportation steps taken, the reports triggered new calls for Clarke to quit from the victim's friends and relatives.

Government officials said Jamma, who is still at large, was not deported because it was just too dangerous for all involved to send him back to Somalia.

It was reported that Jamma had served half of a three-year prison sentence for robbery after being convicted at Sheffield Crown Court, in northern England.

Sources said he claimed asylum and was given indefinite leave to remain in Britain in 2000.

Five other men are currently in custody awaiting trial for the policewoman's murder.

Source: AFP

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