New York ? A fiery Muslim cleric whose now-shuttered London mosque attracted Sept. 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid was arrested Thursday in Britain and accused of trying to build a terrorist training camp in Oregon.

The United States will almost certainly have to rule out the death penalty to get England to hand Abu Hamza al-Masri, 47, over for trial.

The arrest came a day after U.S. officials warned that a stream of credible intelligence indicated a major terrorist attack could occur this summer, and the FBI posted a list of seven wanted al-Qaida operatives.

Al-Masri was not among the seven suspects, but New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly called al-Masri “a freelance consultant to terrorist groups worldwide.” Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft announced the arrest in New York.

A volatile preacher with one eye and hooks for hands — lost, he says, fighting Soviet troops in the 1980s in Afghanistan — al-Masri has long been the focus of terrorism suspicions.

Al-Masri, whose real name is Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, was the imam at the Finsbury Park Mosque, which has been linked to Moussaoui and Reid and was shut down in January 2003 after an anti-terrorism raid. Moussaoui is awaiting trial in the United States, and Reid is serving a life term for trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoe.

Al-Masri has sparked outrage with sermons calling the invasion of Iraq a “war against Islam,” claiming the 9-11 attacks were a Jewish plot and calling the Columbia space shuttle disaster a “punishment from Allah” because Christian, Jewish and Hindu astronauts were aboard.

A grand jury in New York brought an 11-count indictment against al-Masri on April 19, and the charges were announced Thursday.

Prosecutors said al-Masri sought to incite a holy war around the world, and played a major role in a 1998 hostage situation in Yemen that left three British tourists and an Australian visitor dead.

The indictment charged him with hostage-taking and conspiracy in connection with the incident, and alleges he provided material support to al-Qaida and the Taliban to foment a holy war in Afghanistan.

Ashcroft said al-Masri tried to establish a terrorist camp between 1999 and 2000 in Bly, Ore., to teach “violent jihad.” The indictment says al-Masri had several discussions about setting up the camp in late 1999.

Abu Hamza al-Masri