Qatada left Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire after the Appeal Court blocked his deportation to Jordan. He is now living in an £800,000 four-bedroom Edwardian semi in a tree-lined street in West London.

His incapacity allowance will push the family's total annual handouts to more than £50,000. His wife has been claiming £45,000 a year in child benefit, income support, housing benefit and council tax credit for the past four years.

Steve Pound, Labour MP for Ealing North, which borders Qatada's West London home, said: ‘This is adding insult to injury. He abuses us and bleeds us dry at the same time.

‘The sooner he gets back to Jordan the better. I for one would put him in the boot of my car and drive him there myself.'

Taxpayers are also footing an estimated £500,000 a year bill to provide round-the-clock surveillance on Qatada, who has been described by a judges as a ‘truly dangerous individual'.

He arrived in Britain 14 years ago on a forged passport and was granted asylum the following year.

He was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998, and of plotting to plant bombs during the Millennium-celebrations. Last week a judge freed the cleric on bail after ruling he would face an unfair trial if deported to Jordan.

The 45-year-old man was released under bail conditions, made public last Thursday, which restrict him to a single, undisclosed address and state that he "shall remain in the residence at all times".

Although his name has been widely publicised in European trials, U.S. extradition proceedings and past media reporting, the man can be identified only as "U" under British legal restrictions covering deportation cases against foreign terrorism suspects.

He is the second alleged al Qaeda figure to be freed by Britain in just over two weeks, following the release on June 17 of Jordanian militant preacher and "Bin Laden's lieutenant in Britain" Abu Qatada.

While the government says they are dangerous, it lacks enough evidence to put them on trial in Britain and has so far failed in legal battles to deport them.

Neither man is allowed to use a computer or mobile phone, or to receive visitors except by approval from the Home Secretary (interior minister). But U's restrictions go even further than those on Abu Qatada, who can leave home for two hours a day.

Now aged 45, U was arrested at London's Heathrow airport in February 2001 when attempting to fly to Saudi Arabia on a false passport. The British government calls him a "leading organiser and facilitator of terrorist activity aimed mainly at overseas targets", with direct links to bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda figures.

Ahmed Ressam, convicted of a plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium, was carrying U's phone number on him when he was arrested with 60 kg (130 lb) of explosives on the Canadian-U.S. border on Dec. 14, 1999.