LONDON –  British Home Secretary Theresa May says she will go to Jordan in a bid to overcome a European ban on deporting a radical Islamist cleric to the Arab country.

Britain wants to deport Abu Qatada, a Palestinian-Jordanian cleric whom British officials say is an Al Qaeda figurehead and a threat to national security.

But extradition has been prevented by a European Court of Human Rights ruling that there is a risk that evidence obtained through torture would be used against him if he is put on trial in Jordan.

May, Britain's law-and-order chief, said Friday that "the U.K. and Jordan remain committed to ensuring that Abu Qatada must face justice." She said she would "travel back to continue these negotiations shortly."

Abu Qatada is now under house arrest.