THE Blackburn man being held on suspicion of being a hit man is in one of New York's toughest jails, it has emerged.

Mansoor Qadar will be expected to work throughout the week for as little as 12 cents in the Brooklyn penitentiary.

And today foreign secretary Jack Straw promised to look into the extradition of Mr Qadar.

The family of the father-of-six claim the 40-year-old had no involvement in the death of his cousin Shauket Parvez on a Brooklyn Street in 1996.

But Mr Qadar, of Linden Avenue, is currently being held at a top security detention centre in Brooklyn charged with conspiracy to murder and being for hire to commit murder and possession of a firearm in connection with those offences.

His case will be heard at court on December 5 and if found guilty, he could face the death sentence. Mr Qadar's brother, Khalid Hussain, is hoping the Foreign Secretary and Blackburn MP can intervene to make sure his brother gets a fair trial.

Mr Straw said: "If the family of Mr Qadar come and see me at my next surgery, I will certainly see what I can do to help."

Mr Qadar was arrested by Scotland Yard detectives as he got off a North Sea ferry at Harwich on January 19. He was held in Brixton prison before being extradited to America last month.

The former Queen's Park Hospital nurse is just one of 2,337 inmates in the FBI-run Metropolitan Detention Centre, the second largest in New York.

While in the strict centre, he will be expected to work if medically able. Most inmates are assigned to an institution job such as food service worker, orderly, plumber, painter, warehouse worker, or groundskeeper. These jobs pay from 12 cents to 40 cents per hour.

Mr Qadar's wife, Fehmeeda, has not visited her husband in the American prison but said he was feeling "very isolated and vulnerable."

She added Mr Qadar had protested his innocence to her when she visited him in Brixton Prison before he was extradited.

A spokesman for the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust, which runs Queen's Park Hospital, said: "We can confirm that Mansoor Qada did work here.

"He was a nursing assistant in the mental health unit from November '97 to June '99."Mr Qadar, who came to the UK when he was nine years old, faced extradition proceedings at Bow Street Magistrates Court in London. The decision was later ratified by the Secretary of State.

Bow Street Magistrates' Court heard that two witnesses to the murder had identified a car owned by a man called Omar Malik, an alleged co-conspirator with Mr Qadar.

Mr Qadar's brother Mr Hussain said he understood Mr Malik had returned to Pakistan.