( dpa ) - New Zealand's most wanted man, Nai Yin Xue, suspected of murdering his wife in September in Auckland and then abandoning their 3-year-old daughter in Australia, will be deported for being in the United States illegally.
He could be home in two weeks, news reports from Wellington said Saturday.
Initial reports were that he would be extradited on murder charges, a process that could have taken months, even years.
Sandra Manderson, a Washington-based New Zealand police liaison officer, told New Zealand Radio that Xue, 54, has been charged with being a fugitive and with being wanted in New Zealand.
He was arrested in Chamblee, Georgia, on Thursday after members of the Chinese community apprehended him and called police.
Manderson said that Xue, who is being held in Atlanta, Georgia, had not tried to delay his deportation and was ready to face trial in New Zealand.
Qian Xun Xue - dubbed "Pumpkin" by the media for the clothes she wore - was caught on closed-circuit television cameras when she was found wandering at a Melbourne railway station after being abandoned by her father.
The body of her mother, Anan Liu, 27, was found soon after in the boot of a car in Auckland, where the family lived.
New Zealand and Australian authorities said that Xue had flown to Los Angeles after leaving the child, and US law enforcement officers had been tracking him since.
Police in New Zealand said they were still in negotiations with American authorities over who would accompany Xue, a martial arts expert, back to New Zealand.
Tom Hession, the US Marshal who led the manhunt, said he was pleased for New Zealanders that Xue has been captured.
"We're very happy that the outcome didn't end violently, that nobody got hurt, that we can close this case for the New Zealand law enforcement authorities and also the victims involved, and for the public in New Zealand," Hession was quoted as saying.
National Party Member of Parliament Pansy Wong has spoken to Qian Xun Xue's maternal grandmother who has custody of her in China. When told of the arrest, she said that nothing would bring her daughter back.