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Irving's latest case is based on an article by Sereny, "Spin Time for Hitler," which was published in The Observer on April 21, 1996.

Irving claims the article accuses him of inflating tenfold the death toll in the wartime Allied air raid on Dresden, of obtaining the microfiche plates of the Goebbels diaries in Moscow by subterfuge and of using "invention, omission or distortion to express an obsession."

Irving is claiming damages on the grounds that The Observer failed to publish his reply to the article and that Sereny had pursued a campaign of defamation against him for nearly 20 years.

The Observer has already spent some $1 million preparing its defense against Irving's charges.

The disgraced Irving, facing bankruptcy from a bill for costs of some $5 million as a result of his defeat in the Lipstadt trial, is also facing arrest warrants in Germany and the United States.

The German warrant accuses Irving of engaging in Holocaust denial — a criminal offense in Germany — during a speech he made there in 1996.

A California court has issued a warrant for his arrest for failing to repay a $10,000 loan he received in 1997 to help reprint four of his books. The court has found him in contempt.

There are also a number of court judgments against him, mostly for relatively small amounts.

Irving has claimed to have received about $500,00 from more than 4,000 supporters.

Those donors will now be sought for payment of costs by Lipstadt's lawyers on the grounds that they helped Irving sustain his case against her.

Irving told journalists that he had no doubt that Lipstadt's lawyers "will come for their pound of flesh, but I can assure them I am made of British beef. I know how to fight."