NAIROBI, August 4, 2008 (AFP) - A Kenyan court on Monday charged three suspects with harbouring a fugitive after a top Al-Qaeda suspect wanted for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania gave police the slip.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed escaped arrest during a police operation in the coastal town of Malindi on Saturday in which police seized two other suspects. Mohammed's wife was arrested a day later.

The three denied the charge before a court in Kenya's port town of Mombasa and were remanded until Friday.

Mohammed is high on the US wanted list for his alleged role in the embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which left more than 220 people dead and thousands injured on August 7 1998.

Mohammed, a native of the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros, had slipped into the country to seek treatment for a kidney ailment, police said.

He is also suspected of involvement in twin anti-Israeli attacks in the Kenyan resort of Mombasa in 2002.