Syrian-born cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed is not in the UAE, a top police officer told Gulf News, denying a report published in a London-based Arabic newspaper that claimed the radical cleric, who faces the prospect of treason charges in Britain, had arrived in Sharjah from Lebanon.

Meanwhile, sources in Beirut confirmed to Gulf News that the man was still in Lebanon.

"He is not in the UAE. He is blacklisted here and cannot enter the country," said Brigadier General Saleh Al Mutawa, the Commander in Chief of Sharjah police.

The Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat quoted Bakri as saying in a telephone call that he had arrived in Sharjah on Tuesday after spending three days in Beirut.

"This is a lie. There is no truth [in the report]," Brig. Gen. Al Mutawa said.

Informed sources in the Lebanese capital said Bakri, whose last name is Al Shami, according to Brig. Gen. Al Mutawa, was still in Lebanon.

"He was doing press interviews until late last night," the source told Gulf News on the telephone.

"He is definitely in Lebanon. I am sure he lied for fear of being arrested there," the sources said.

Bakri told BBC radio on Tuesday he intended to return to London from a holiday in Lebanon, if the British government lets him.

He is founder and spiritual leader of the now defunct Al Muhajiroun fundamentalist organisation.

British press reports said on Monday that Bakri, who went to Britain in 1985 as an asylum-seeker, could face treason charges if prosecutors and police agree this week that they can successfully prosecute hard-line Islamists as traitors in the courts.

Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday pledged a crackdown on hard-line Islamists in the wake of the July 7 London suicide bombings which killed 56 people.