LONDON — As officials on both sides of the Atlantic review intelligence lapses in the case of the 23-year-old Nigerian accused of attempting to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day, a government spokesman said Monday that Britain had passed information about the suspect to American authorities before the bombing attempt.

Simon Lewis, spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, did not say when the intelligence about the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had been relayed to American intelligence agencies, and he gave no details of what American agencies were told.

British officials have acknowledged that Mr. Abdulmutallab, who was a student in London from 2005 to 2008, had shown up in the surveillance of extremist Islamic groups by British counterterrorism agencies, but only as a peripheral figure visiting mosques and meeting with activists who promoted radical views.

Mr. Brown has said last week it was “increasingly clear” that Mr. Abdulmutallab linked up with Al Qaeda when he went to Yemen after leaving Britain. “Whatever he decided to do, he decided while he was out of the country,” Mr. Lewis said.