Great Train robber Ronnie Biggs was heading back to Britain last night on a plane from Rio de Janeiro.

Biggs, who has been on the run for 35 years, started the 6,000-mile journey home to face the music for his crime, at about 10pm British time.

The ailing 71-year-old crook has said his last wish is to walk into a Margate pub and buy a pint of bitter, but he was expected to be arrested as soon as he set foot on British soil.

He has been issued with an emergency passport which allows him to make a single, one-way trip back to Britain.

Foreign Secretary Robin Cook intervened personally to check there would be no delays in issuing the passport.

Family friend Kevin Crace said Biggs was "very excited" about the prospect of coming back to Britain.

He said he had spoken to the robber's son, Michael, 26, in Brazil, who had told him that "the old Biggs sparkle had appeared in his eye" at the prospect of a return home, on a jet supplied by The Sun newspaper.

An answerphone message at Biggs' home in the Santa Teresa district of Rio yesterday said he would be "away until the 12th", before directing messages to his official website.

Meanwhile, shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe called for a "hard-headed" attitude, saying he should spend the rest of his life behind bars.

But friends said the authorities should treat him with compassion as he was in poor health following his third stroke, and was now unable to speak and had to communicate through written notes.

Drinkers in Margate - where Biggs said he wants to "enjoy a pint of bitter like a true Englishman" -said they would be queuing up to buy him a drink.

News of his intention to return came after Biggs sent an e-mail to the head of the Flying Squad, Detective Chief Superintendent John Coles, the officer in overall charge of the Met's Serious and Organised Crime Group, saying he wanted to give himself up.

Biggs took part in the infamous 1963 robbery of the Glasgow to London mail train which netted him and the rest of the gang £2.6m - about £50m at current values - and went down in criminal folklore as the Great Train Robbery.

He still has 28 years to serve of a 30-year sentence for his part in the robbery.

He escaped from Wandsworth Prison in London after serving 15 months of his sentence.

He is hoping, because of his poor health, that he will be put in a jail hospital while the authorities decide what to do with him.

There have been suggestions that he has run out of money and wants to return home to get free medical treatment on the NHS.

But Home Secretary Jack Straw said any individual unlawfully at large from prison was liable to immediate re-arrest and return to prison as soon as it came to the notice of the police.

But Biggs' lawyer in Brazil, Wellington Mousinho, has said that he was prepared to return to Britain regardless of whether he has to go to jail or not.

In Brazil, Biggs kept money coming in by inviting people into his home and even selling T-shirts and souvenirs on his website.