Foreign groups banned in Britain

The British government has announced the names of foreign organisations it intends to ban under new anti-terrorist legislation.

Among the twenty-one organisations are the Algerian groups the Armed Islamic Group or G-I-A, and the Salafist GSPC and the Egyptian organisations Islamic Jihad and Al-Gama'at al-Islamiya.

They join such groups as the Basque separatist organisation, ETA, the Kurdish PKK based in Turkey, the Tamil Tiger guerrillas in Sri Lanka and the Al-Qa'ida organisation of the Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden.

The British parliament is being asked to approve the list, which would allow activities in Britain on behalf of the groups to be banned.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service