Attorney General John Ashcroft has taken his Patriot Act road show to Norway. On the last day of his four day visit, he warns about a suspected terrorist in Norway, and suggests if he's extradited, the death penalty can be avoided:

Ashcroft said a ban by European nations including Norway on extraditing suspects to countries such as the United States where they might risk the death penalty for their alleged crimes could be skirted round if necessary.

"European countries do extradite individuals to the United States. They sometimes require in specific cases that there won't be the likelihood or the possibility of the death penalty," he said. "It could be an option in any (legal) case that we would negotiate extradition based on those kinds of considerations," he said, referring to demands that the death penalty not be applied.

The U.S. has not yet sought the extradition of Mullah Krekar, an ex-Kurd leader and founder of the Ansar al-Islam group in northern Iraq, who is currently living in Norway.

On Friday, Ashcroft talked to reporters in Oslo about weapons of mass destruction:

US Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Friday it was likely that components of Saddam Hussein’s alleged nuclear weapons programme would eventually be found in Iraq.

“We’ve already found a number of things which are troublesome, things that relate to the development of the evil chemistry and evil biology that could be very dangerous to the human kind,” Ashcroft told reporters during a visit to Oslo.

Despite urgings from Norway's Justice Minister, Ashcroft also pledged that the U.S. would not change its mind about refusing to provide P.O.W. status to the detainees at Guanatanamo: