AN asylum seeker from the North-East was last night thought to have lost his battle to stay in England, despite last-minute intervention from Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Kissi Kilondo is understood to have been deported to his Congo homeland, despite a four-year campaign for him to be granted asylum.

Supporters of Mr Kilondo, who have campaigned for several months, said they were very disappointed.

Mr Blair's constituency agent, John Burton, contacted the Home Office last week to ask them to review Mr Kilondo's case, but was told the Congo was no longer deemed dangerous enough to warrant him being granted asylum.

Mr Burton said: "The Home Office said the situation in Congo had changed and the Government had changed so there were people from both political factions involved. Therefore, there were not dangers like when he left.

"With those circumstances, it was very difficult for us to do anything."

Last night, officials at Harmondsworth detention centre, where Mr Kilondo has been held for several weeks, said he was no longer there.

Mr Kilondo, who fled to England in 2001 after he was implicated in a Congolese political coup, lived in Middlesbrough and became involved with Cannon Park Church.

He later moved to Middleton-St-George, near Darlington, where he lived with a fellow churchgoer, Chrisjan Dees, and his family.

He was arrested in Darlington last month and taken into detention.

Mr Dees said last night: "This is very bad news, awful. Friends of ours only spoke to him at lunchtime, and he said if he was still in the country by evening, he would phone. But we heard nothing."

Amnesty International condemned the deportation.