Washington - A US federal appeals court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the deportation of an alleged Nazi death camp guard to Germany, where he faces war-crimes charges. The US Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, granted the stay hours after federal agents removed John Demjanjuk, 89, from his home in the Cleveland suburb of Seven Hills in anticipation of sending him to Germany.

German authorities allege that the Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk, then 23, worked from March-September 1943 as a guard in Poland at Sobibor concentration camp, where at least 29,000 Jews died during that time. Prosecutors in Munich issued an arrest warrant for him three weeks ago.

Demjanjuk's attorneys had failed in attempts to halt the deportation in previous court motions, and a US Board of Immigration Appeals on Friday cleared transporting him back to Germany.

The Court of Appeals quickly granted a stay because Demjanjuk's deportation appeared imminent, allowing more time to review the case. His lawyers argue that he is too ill to stand trial and that his medical condition would worsen in incarceration.

Immigration agents wheeled Demjanjuk from his home and took him into custody. Earlier, his attorney, John Broadley, could not confirm that his client was en route to Germany.

"I have no idea what they are planning to do with him," Broadley said, adding that he assumes "they will be trying to bundle him on a plane as soon as possible to get him out of the jurisdiction of the American courts."

Broadley did not immediately return phone calls seeking reaction to the Court of Appeals ruling. The US Justice Department would not comment on Demjanjuk's status.

Following World War II, Demjanjuk lived in Germany as a refugee until 1952 when he changed his first name from Ivan to John and moved to the United States.

Demjanjuk was acquitted in 1993 by the Israeli Supreme Court of charges that he worked at a different death camp, Treblinka, saving him from the death sentence of a lower court in Israel.(dpa)