GOVAN MP Mohammed Sarwar handed over a #5000 ''bribe'' in the centre of the city in broad daylight, a jury heard yesterday.

Mr Sarwar allegedly handed the cash to Badar Islam after taking it from a briefcase which had been lying on the back seat of his Mercedes.

Mr Islam told the High Court in Edinburgh that he had wrapped his scarf round the money because he was worried about his fingerprints getting on to the bag.

He denied that it was a loan or that he had made up his evidence because the News of the World was paying him about #45,000 for his story.

Three days after the alleged handover, the newspaper ran a front page story headlined: ''Sleaze bombshell. Labour MP in Election Bribe Scandal'' and Mr Islam was pictured at his home with a bag of money.

Mr Sarwar, 46, denies forming a fraudulent scheme by inducing Glasgow's electoral registration officer to add four names and false qualifying addresses to the voters' roll.

He also denies that, in the knowledge that police and the media were investigating the registration of voters in Govan, he incited Badar Islam to give a false statement on oath in exchange for #5000.

The court has heard that, along with his election agent Tariq Malik, Mr Islam was due to accompany Mr Sarwar to give a sworn statement at the office of solicitor Ian Smart in Cumbernauld on May 15, 1997. The News of the World had given him a tape recorder to carry in his jacket pocket.

Mr Islam said yesterday there was a black briefcase beside him on the back seat of Mr Sarwar's white Mercedes as they drove to Cumbernauld.

Mr Sarwar took the briefcase with him to the lawyer's office and as they sat in a waiting room, allegedly said: ''If the police come here we three go to jail . . . because of the money in the briefcase.''

Mr Islam told the court that he gave a sworn statement to Mr Smart in which he blamed unofficial Labour candidate Mr Peter Paton for voting irregularites in Govan. He knew the affidavit was false, but went ahead with it because that was what Mr Sarwar had told him to say.

It was arranged that he would sign the affidavit in the presence of another lawyer later in the day, but he said he had no intention of signing the document and planned to make the excuse that his son was unwell.

Mr Islam said that, after they returned to Glasgow, Mr Sarwar stopped at the Mitchell Library and asked him to pass the briefcase from the back seat.

Mr Sarwar then became worried that they might be filmed on the security cameras at the library so he drove down a lane at the back of an Indian restaurant and stopped at the back door.

There were two Pakistanis there and Mr Sarwar was concerned that they might see him. He drove up the lane, did a U-turn and parked.

Mr Islam told the court that Mr Sarwar asked him to pass the briefcase from the back seat.

''He opened the briefcase and took out a blue polythene carrier bag. He passed the bag to Tariq Malik. Malik didn't say anything, but gestured with his thumb to give it to me. Sarwar passed it to me.''

He looked in the bag and saw #5000 in five bundles of #20 notes, wrapped in Westminster Bank labels. He was worried about getting his fingerprints on the bag and wrapped it in his scarf.

Afterwards he drove to the Lorne Hotel in Glasgow to meet a News of the World reporter. He showed him the bag of money and told him: ''You wanted the evidence. You have got the evidence.''

Mr Islam claimed he met the MP at the Marriott Hotel the following day. Again, he had a tape recorder in his pocket because the News of the World wanted him to get Mr Sarwar to mention the #5000. He alleged that Mr Sarwar had become panicky and he assured the MP the cash was in a safe place. ''He said: 'Can you take the labels off and destroy them or hide them somewhere?' ''

The trial continues.