The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, has received a letter from her Israeli counterpart asking for more information relating to the death of the UK cameraman, James Miller in the Gaza strip more than four years ago.

In what has been described as a "breakthrough", Baroness Scotland's office confirmed that it had received the letter from the Israeli justice minister, Meni Mazuz, asking for more information on the expert evidence provided by the Metropolitan police regarding Mr Miller's death. While filming a documentary for Channel 4 in May 2003 about the children who are caught up in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, James Miller was shot dead in Gaza.

The new information which Israeli authorities have asked for relates to expert analysis conducted on behalf of the Metropolitan police using footage of the scene of Mr Miller's death, taken by a crew from Associated Press Television News. The evidence, produced for the Met, indicated that the shots that night in Gaza in May 2003 came only from the direction of an Israeli armoured vehicle, contradicting Israel's insistence that Mr Miller was caught in crossfire. Earlier this year, this information prompted the then attorney general Lord Goldsmith to give the Israeli authorities six weeks to open a criminal investigation.

The Israeli justice ministry initially said it was not prepared to be bound by a UK government timetable. With the latest breakthrough, the British government can now, in theory, demand that Israel extradites the soldier alleged to be responsible for the killing.

Mr Miller's family responded to the latest development with a statement that said: "We are very pleased that General Mazuz has replied within the time limit set out in Lord Goldsmith's letter. "This information has for the most part been in the possession of the Israeli investigators for more than four years. In April 2006 a London jury at St Pancras coroner's court returned a verdict of unlawful killing and said that Mr Miller, 34, had been "murdered".

Mr Miller had gone to Gaza to film children on both sides of the conflict, but he was killed on his last day in the Middle East.