Spy-turned-whistleblower David Shayler may have won his release from French jail -- but it will be some time before he becomes a free man.

The former MI5 officer spent more than 100 days in prison as the British government tried unsuccessfully to extradite him.

It wanted him to face charges of breaching the official secrets act with a number of revelations about the intelligence services.

Included in his claims was allegations of a plot by British security services to assassinate Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.

Mr Shayler was freed last month after a French judge dismissed the extradition request.

But he faces arrest in the UK and will not return from Paris until he has immunity from prosecution.

He said: "This is the problem. I'm trying to negotiate with the government but the legal advice given to me is not to leave France.

"In theory I'm free to make new revelations here because I'm protected by French law.

"I'm not going to do that but the government has said it's not going to talk to me and is insisting I've broken the law, but that's just rubbish basically.

"If people have a bit of imagination they could solve the problem, but it seems they don't want to."

Mr Shayler said he felt as though the government was trying to goad him into making fresh revelations.

And while insisting he would not do anything to threaten national security he admitted he may be forced to put his claims into print.

"Probably the best way forward is to write some kind of book," he said. "I'm trying to find a way back to the UK without being arrested and a way of putting forward my evidence in a way that's acceptable to the government and me."

Mr Shayler fled abroad with girlfriend Annie Machon, also a former MI5 officer, over a year ago after his claims about the intelligence services formed the basis of a number of newspaper articles.

He was arrested on August 1 after the British Government, on hearing of the imminent Gaddafi revelations, started extradition

proceedings.

Mr Shayler was taken to the La Santé prison which has Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as notorious international terrorist Carlos the Jackal, as an inmate.

With no job and nowhere to live Mr Shayler has been forced to rely on short-term help from a national newspaper since his release.

But while it paid some of his hotel and legal bills he is adamant he received no payment for his story.

Mr Shayler insists he is not a traitor who revealed national secrets. With the end of the cold war MI5 is becoming more involved with crime as opposed to national security, and that, Mr Shayler claimed, should mean it is more accountable.

Instead, he insists there is a great deal going on behind closed doors.

``That's the sort of attitude in the old Soviet Union,'' he said. ``it's all done in secret and we may or may not tell you about it.''

He points to government denials and a refusal to investigate his claims as proof of a need for more

openness.

"Robin Cook (Foreign Secretary) is trying to say I'm talking rubbish," he said. "But if I am he's got nothing to lose by carrying out an investigation."

"I don't know how people who claim to have a conscience can allow the intelligence service to get away with this.

"Instead of sending out signals that we're going to control you in future, it sends out signals exactly the opposite.''

With time on his hands Mr Shayler, who turns 33 on Christmas Eve, has drafted a light-hearted fictional novel about life in MI5.

He has also written articles about his passion for football for a number of soccer magazines.

A Middlesbrough supporter, he is also planning another book about a fictional side based lo

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