BRITAIN: British prime minister Tony Blair has defended his government's decision not to hold a public inquiry into the July 7th London bombings, saying it would constitute a massive diversion for the police and security services.
At the same time, he used the last prime minister's questions of the year to stoutly defend the Iraq war and Britain's alliance with the United States, while dismissing demands for an inquiry into allegations that US flights were being allowed to pass through UK airports to fly terror suspects abroad for torture.
The government's decision to offer a written "narrative" on the London bombings was criticised by Sir Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain.
He said it was "crucial" to establish whether the war in Iraq had been a factor in prompting the bombings.
The mother of a man killed in the blasts accused the government of treating relatives with "utter disdain".
Fatayi-Williams, from her home in Nigeria, said the government's decision made "a sad Christmas present" for relatives spending their first festive season without the presence of their loved ones.
Conservative shadow minister for homeland security Patrick Mercer also wanted a wider inquiry.
He said he wanted to know why the government had reduced the official security threat assessment just weeks before the July attacks.
However, neither his party leader David Cameron nor embattled Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy chose to press Mr Blair on the issue during prime minister's questions.
Mr Cameron used his second appearance as opposition leader to try again to increase the tensions between the prime minister and a growing army of Labour backbenchers over the government's controversial education reforms.
Mr Kennedy - who met his MPs last night in an attempt to defuse a fresh threat to his leadership of the party - pressed Mr Blair on America's "rendition" policy.
"If terrorist suspects are not being transported to a third country for reasons of torture or mistreatment, can you explain what are the purposes for which they are being transported?" he demanded.
Mr Blair said checks had failed to identify any request for a rendition by the US authorities since the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001, and he told Mr Kennedy that the idea that the government should investigate every time a US government aircraft landed in the UK was "just absurd".
Mr Blair told MPs it was already known "essentially" what had happened on July 7th and that the events of that day were to be the subject of inquiries by up to five Commons select committees.
He insisted: "If we ended up having a full public inquiry . . . we would end up diverting a massive amount of police and security service time and I do not think that would be sensible."
The proposed narrative, to be compiled by a civil servant, would include all the evidence the government had, said Mr Blair.
Home secretary Charles Clarke earlier told the BBC that, although the four suicide bombers had died in the London attacks, the authorities were continuing to investigate their links to other individuals.