Washington - A US judge on Monday cleared the way for John Demjanjuk, a war-crimes suspect from the Nazi era, to be deported to Germany.

The US Immigration Court in Arlington, Virginia, lifted a stay on the deportation that it had issued Friday.

The court declaration means Demjanjuk could be deported as early as Wednesday, but his lawyers were expected to seek a further stay.

Demjanjuk, who turned 89 Friday, had filed a last-minute emergency court motion to stop his deportation, arguing that he was too ill to travel and stand trial. His bid to stay in the US was to avoid likely prosecution for his role in the murder of 29,000 Jews.

The World Jewish Congress in New York welcomed the judge's decision.

"Demjanjuk may be old and frail, but so are many Holocaust survivors whose lives were destroyed by the likes of him," president Ronald Lauder said in a statement. "They rightly demand justice from those who murdered their loved ones 65 years ago."

"Countries have a duty to bring mass murderers and their accomplices to justice. There are no excuses for any further delay in this case," he said. "No Nazi war criminal still alive should feel safe anywhere in the world."

Demjanjuk German lawyer and family say he suffers from kidney stones and a bone marrow disease.

German evidence suggests that Demjanjuk, then 23, was a Nazi guard at Sobibor concentration camp, at a location that is now part of Poland, from March till the end of September 1943. He apparently worked at the camp while at least 29,000 Jews were put to death there.

After World War II he lived in Germany as a refugee. In 1952 he changed his first name from Ivan to John and moved to the United States.

In Munich, a German defence lawyer called Sunday for a German court doctor to check up on Demjanjuk.

Guenther Maull, who has been appointed as legal-aid defence to Demjanjuk after a warrant was issued last month in Munich for his arrest, said he would apply to the Munich prosecutor on Monday to send a court-appointed doctor to the United States to see Demjanjuk at his home in Ohio. Demjanjuk has lived in the United States since 1952.

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.

Munich prosecutors issued a warrant three weeks ago for the arrest of the Ukrainian-born man, who has been stripped on his US citizenship and is now stateless.

Washington cannot prosecute him over the allegations, but has been eager to expel the former US car worker.

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.

Washington cannot prosecute him over the allegations, but has been eager to expel the former US car worker. (dpa)