Hundreds of videos inciting violence, including some linked to the suspected al-Qaida mastermind of the cargo plane bomb plot, were removed from YouTube today.

The videos were highlighted after the conviction of Roshonara Choudhry for attempting to kill the former government minister Stephen Timms. She was radicalised watching internet sermons by Anwar al-Awlaki, an Islamist cleric now in Yemen who the US suspects masterminded several terrorist plots.

In a private speech in the US last week, the security minister, Lady Neville-Jones, called on the White House to "take down this hateful material" in cases where servers were located within its jurisdiction.

"When you have incitement to murder, when you have people actively calling for the killing of their fellow citizens and when you have the means to stop that person doing so, then I believe we should act," she said. "Those websites would categorically not be allowed in the UK. They incite cold-blooded murder and as such are surely contrary to the public good."

In one sermon, 44 Ways to Support Jihad, Awlaki told followers: "Jihad today is obligatory on every capable Muslim."

A YouTube spokesman said: "YouTube has community guidelines that prohibit dangerous or illegal activities such as bomb-making, hate speech, or incitement to commit specific and serious acts of violence. We also remove all videos and terminate any account registered by a member of a designated foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) and used in an official capacity to further the interests of the FTO.

"We have removed a significant number of videos under these policies. We're now looking into the new videos that have been raised with us and will remove all those which break our rules."

Last week a US Congressman, Anthony Weiner, told the New York Daily News he wanted YouTube to pull down more than 700 clips of Awlaki.

"We are facilitating the recruitment of homegrown terror," he said. "There is no reason we should give killers like al-Awlaki access to one of the world's largest bully pulpits so they can inspire more violent acts within our borders, or anywhere else in the world."

It is understood that YouTube has asked for Weiner's list of clips as part of its investigation.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are determined to tackle extremism and always press for the removal of jihadist material on the internet. Where sites are hosted abroad our ability to close them down is limited. Nevertheless, we work with our overseas counterparts to encourage them to remove them."