Washington – U.S. and UK To Fund anti-terror Police Unit in Yemen

Washington – Britain and the US are to jointly fund a counter-terrorism unit in Yemen, it has been revealed.

Downing Street said PM Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama had agreed the move as part of the response to the failed Detroit airliner plot.

The two countries will also be pushing for more UN intervention to tackle the emerging terrorist threat in Somalia.

The announcement came after the Prime Minister called a summit of world leaders in London later this month to discuss Yemen.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who allegedly attempted to detonate a bomb on an aeroplane approaching Detroit on Christmas Day, is said to have told FBI agents that he was radicalised and trained in Yemen within the last six months.

There had been concerns that he was part of a network of Islamic extremists in Britain after it emerged that he spent three years at university in London.

A Number 10 spokeswoman said Mr Brown and Mr Obama had spoken several times on the telephone since the failed attack, and decided to increase UK-US co-operation.

Funding will be provided for a joint counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen, along with more support for the country’s coastguard.

The leaders will also push at the UN security council for a larger peacekeeping force in Somalia.

Mr Brown will hold talks with ministerial colleagues and intelligence advisors this week, and the initial findings of a review of security at UK airports – ordered in the wake of the Detroit incident – will be delivered “in days”, according to Downing Street.