Hungary's MTI news agency said Budapest's city court had responded to a European arrest warrant by ordering that Mahler be handed over to German authorities within nine days.

The 81-year-old, who was arrested three weeks ago inside Hungary, has already failed in his bid for political asylum that included a message sent to Hungary's hard-line conservative prime minister, Viktor Orban.

Once a left-wing fanatic, Mahler became a member of Germany's radical extreme-right party, the NPD, between 2000 and 2003, before quitting it, asserting that it was "outdated."

Two years ago, a German court ruled that because of serious illness he could leave prison, where he was serving a 10-year sentence for Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic incitement.

Late last year, he was ordered to return to prison in the eastern city of Brandenburg, but he refused and fled Germany, turning up in Hungary.

The European warrant for his arrest was sought by prosecutors in Munich.

ipj/kms (AFP, dpa, AP)