The Toulouse killer's brother - who praised the attacks on Jews- visited the UK. A 'white imam' admits he met the brother but claimed it was only for a divorce.
The brother of the terrorist who shot dead three French soldiers, a Rabbi and three children in Toulouse had visited Britain.
Abdelkader Merah, 27, was arrested on Wednesday after his brother Mohamed was shot dead at the end of a 32-hour siege in the French city.
Scotland Yard and MI5 are trying to reconstruct his movements in Britain, but believe he crossed the Channel to meet British radicals.
The brothers were known to the DCRI, the French domestic intelligence agency, as members of Forsane Alizza [Knights of Pride] an organisation associated with the group Sharia4UK and another called Sharia4Belgium.
Sharia4UK is closely linked to the banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun, formerly headed by Anjem Choudary.
Police reportedly found explosives in Abdelkader's car and can hold him for 96 hours before charges are brought.
In January, Forsane Alizza was banned in France for inciting racial hatred, but the group has reformed on the internet.
Choudary said Merah's attack was "not verifiable". He said: "I'm not going to judge this individual," but added that "shooting someone in the head, it is completely unacceptable".
Sources told The Daily Telegraph that French investigators had not alerted them to concerns about the brothers or potential links between the French group and extremists in the UK.
Police believe the Merah brothers may have been drawn to an Islamist nicknamed "the white emir" by the French press. Syrian-born Olivier Corel, 65, admitted to The Daily Telegraph yesterday that he had been visited on at least one occasion by Abdelkader.
The mullah said Merah visited a few weeks ago to discuss a divorce and Islamist religious law. Speaking in Les Lanes in the Ariege region south of Toulouse, he said: "If he [Abdelkader Merah] says he came by here, then he came by here. People come and go and I cannot tell you all their names."
A judicial source told the French newspaper Le Parisienne: "It seems very credible that he had influence over Mohamed Merah. He could be an accomplice, that is someone who gives orders."
But Corel denied influencing young French Muslims to attack.
"All these words are used - Salafists, jihadists, al-Qaeda. None of them has anything to do with me," he said.
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