Three Islamic clerics face possible prison sentences or expulsion following Prime Minister Tony Blair's warning last Friday against preaching hate, the Observer newspaper reported on Sunday.

In a fresh development over the government's crackdown on Islamic extremists, the paper said, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Ken Macdonald are due to meet senior police chiefs on Monday to discuss charges against those who call for jihad.

"The Attorney General and the DPP are now formally considering comments made over the last week by certain individuals," a spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General was quoted by the Sunday newspaper as saying.

Individuals facing charges, according to the report, include the controversial cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, who last week said that the London bombs would make the west sit up and take notice and that he would support hostage-taking at British schools if carried out by terrorists with "just cause."

The others are Abu Izzadeen, spokesman for group Al-Ghurabaa or the "Strangers" and Abu Uzair of spiritual group the Saviour Sect, one of the successor organizations to al-Muhajiroun.

The paper quoted Uzair as saying in a BBC interview "The banner has been risen for jihad inside the UK." Izzadeen also provoked anger when he said the suicide bombers behind the slaughter of 52 innocent people in London were "completely praiseworthy," the paper said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiled on Friday at a monthly press conference a series of plans to extend anti-terrorist efforts to "deport any foreign national inciting extremism" and refuse asylum seekers in Britain if they are found to advocate extremism.

Source: Xinhua