The suspect in an alleged plot to blow up the US embassy in Paris has denied to French investigators that he had received orders from Osama bin Laden, according to his lawyer.
As investigators around the world hunted traces of the network they believe may have been behind last month's attacks, Germany said it had frozen over 200 bank accounts and Uganda detained seven Pakistanis it said might be connected to bin Laden.
Mr Fabrice Dubest, lawyer for Franco-Algerian Mr Djamel Beghal who was extradited from the United Arab Emirates yesterday, said that earlier statements by his client interpreted as confirming the link to bin Laden were made in indeterminate circumstances in Dubai.
"The key point is that he has contested being commissioned by anybody to organise, prepare and carry out terrorist acts, notably against US interests in Paris," he told France 2 television.
A French judicial source said earlier that Mr Beghal had admitted signing a pact with an aide to bin Laden to carry out suicide attacks on the US mission and on an American cultural centre in Paris.
Police arrested seven suspected extremists in Paris on September 21st as part of their investigation into whether US interests in France were the planned targets of attacks.
In Berlin, Germany's Economics Ministry said it had greatly stepped up its efforts to crack down on financial flows that may be nourishing violent groups and had frozen 214 bank accounts suspected of being linked to terrorists. It said the accounts contained a total of DM8 million (euro 4.1 million).
At least three of the hijackers who flew the planes had lived in Germany and security experts say the country has been a safe haven because of its extensive laws to protect privacy.
In Switzerland, officials said today they had found no evidence that their internationally renowned and secretive banking system was used to help fund the September 11th attacks. But investigators are still searching and have blocked one account.
In London, legal sources told said that Britain was poised to use anti-terrorism laws to arrest a prominent Muslim who has urged his followers to kill Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf for siding with the United States against bin Laden.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it was looking into allegation the man has issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for President Musharraf's death. There was no suggestion Bakri was linked himself to bin Laden.
Yesterday, British police arrested a 43-year-old man on terror charges. Media reports said the man ran a company offering young Muslims weapons-training in the United States and claimed to have sent fighters to Afghanistan and Chechnya.
In Uganda, police said they arrested seven Pakistanis and a Zambian at Entebbe airport last week who were using fake passports. Police said they might be linked to bin Laden through a suspect Pakistani travel agency.
"Their travel arrangements were very suspicious," a police spokesman said. "First they flew to Burundi and then Rwanda and then to Uganda and were on their way to Germany, it was fishy."