London - According to New York Times, the British Home secretary, Charles Clarke, announced on Thursday, that 10 foreigners seen as a "threat to national security" had been seized and would be deported.

It was the first such move since last month attacks in London, including the subway and bus bombings on 7th July that killed 56 people, including the four bombers.

The foreigners, whom Mr. Clarke declined to identify by name, were detained Thursday in early morning raids by the police in London, Leicester, Luton and the Birmingham area. Lawyers acting for some of the people detained said their clients had been denied legal representation, and civil rights groups said they feared the foreigners might be sent to lands where they could face torture or other abuse, in violation of European human rights rules.

The Home Office said those held in custody would be allowed to appeal, a process that could prevent their departure or delay it for months.

The detainees were said by one of his lawyers to include Palestinian-born
Abu Qatada, who has been described by a European investigator as the spiritual ambassador of Al Qaeda in Europe and an inspiration for Mohamed Atta, one of the 9/11, 2001, hijackers in the US.

The arrests on Thursday coincided with a flurry of other activity related to Britain's campaign against terrorism, suggesting that it was evolving on several fronts both at home and abroad.

In Beirut, a Lebanese official said a British-based militant cleric, Omar Bakri Mohammed, had been detained by the authorities. Mr. Bakri left Britain last Saturday saying he was going on vacation. British officials declined on Thursday to discuss his arrest.

In the interview recorded before his arrest, Mr. Bakri denied links to Al Qaeda and said he was opposed to the killing of innocents, whether in the attacks in Spain last year, the British bombings or the 9/11 attacks.

Mr. Bakri left Britain a day after Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a broad range of new antiterrorism measures, including the deportation of clerics fomenting violence, the possible closing of some mosques and actions to bar Islamic militants from entering Britain.

At a magistrate's court in central London on Thursday, Haroon Rashid Aswat, who was deported from Zambia last Sunday and is wanted in the United States to face terrorism-related charges, was ordered held in custody until Sept. 8 to face extradition hearings.

In a separate case, 10 people seized for failing to cooperate with the police after the July 21 attacks were denied bail. They included Yeshiemebet Girma, the wife of Hussain Osman, one of the main suspects, who is being held in Rome facing possible extradition to Britain.

In a statement on Thursday as he announced the 10 detentions of foreigners, Mr. Clarke, whose operations include internal security, linked the move to deport the people detained on Thursday to the attacks in July.

"The circumstances of our national security have changed," he said. "It is vital that we act against those who threaten it."

European human rights rules bar member nations from deporting people to countries where they might face abuse, torture or the death sentence. In recent weeks, however, Britain has negotiated an agreement with Jordan - one of the countries that had been suspected of such practices - guaranteeing that deportees will not be abused.

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