European Union justice and interior ministers this evening agreed to step up their fight against terrorists, vowing to implement an EU anti-terror action plan by the end of the year.
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| Police officers outside of a house in Leeds, England as a search is made of properties suspected of being linked to last week's London bomb attacks. |
In emergency talks called after the London bombings, the ministers said they would accelerate measures to cut off funding to terrorist groups and boost the sharing of intelligence needed in terror investigations.
The ministers said they would build on "pursuing and investigating terrorists across borders, to impede terrorists' planning, disrupt supporting networks, cut off any funding and bring terrorists to justice."
British Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who chaired the anti-terror emergency talks in Brussels, said the EU would share more intelligence, which he said was crucial to hunting down terrorists and preventing more attacks.
"What we have to do is to accelerate the speed of our work and to agree on implementing anti-terror proposals to make the work of terrorism more difficult," Mr Clarke said.
"All of us today are determined to achieve that," he added. The ministers also agreed to hold two minutes of silence at midday across the 25-nation bloc tomorrow - one week after the deadly bus and subway attacks that left at least 52 people dead and hundreds injured.
The EU remains "absolutely determined that the terrorists will not succeed," they said, adding that the attacks were "an affront to the universal values on which the EU is based."
Earlier today Prime Minister Tony Blair promised to consider a range of measures to stem the rising tide of extremism in Britain in the wake of the London bombings.
Mr Blair also warned of a possible backlash against Britain's 1.6 million Muslims and called for tolerance among the public after it emerged the four men responsible for killing at least 52 people in the bombings were British-born Muslims.
All four suspects - British nationals of Pakistani origin, three of them from west Yorkshire - were captured on CCTV at King's Cross station, carrying rucksacks, shortly before 8.30am on the day of the attacks last Thursday. Police revealed today they are searching for a fifth suspect.
Police are reportedly trying to work out whether the four were inspired by a master bomber who may still be at large.
Mr Blair told the House of Commons this afternoon he would look urgently at a range of measures to tackle extremism, including boosting efforts to stop people entering the country to stir up hatred.
French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the EU had to ensure it was not becoming a training ground for terrorists whose goal was attacking their own countries. "We have to find out where they are being recruited and by whom," he said.
"It's a question of surveillance." He confirmed that France had temporarily suspended the EU's open-border agreement, allowing authorities to re-impose passport checks on frontiers with other EU neighbours.
Mr Clarke thanked his counterparts around the table for the help European police and intelligence agencies had given in investigating last week's London bombings. He said such practical co-operation proved that more could be done to prevent further attacks across Europe.
"The support that we had from international, and particularly European, intelligence agencies and police has been first class," Mr Clarke told a European Parliament committee ahead of the talks. "It has made a difference."
He did not immediately give details of the assistance British investigators received from abroad, but gave special thanks to Spain for its sharing of expertise gained after last year's deadly bomb attacks on trains in Madrid.
Mr Clarke said he would push his counterparts to not only review the 25-nation's anti-terror action plan, but also to ensure new proposals were quickly implemented by the end of the year. Progress on implementing 12 "priority" anti-terrorist measures proposed after last year's Madrid train bombings has been slower than EU officials would have liked, EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said.
"The time has come to name and shame" laggards, Mr Frattini went on. "Without true European cooperation, we cannot prove and show to the public and to the terrorists that we are willing and ready to move ahead very quickly."
Gijs De Vries, the EU's counter terrorism co-ordinator, warned EU governments last month that failing to introduce the 12 measures would hamper European efforts to hunt down terrorists.
Below is a list of the people confirmed dead so far in the July 7th bombings in London, which killed at least 52.
VICTIMS OF BUS BOMBING:
Jamie Gordon, financial worker (30)
Philip Stuart Russell, financial worker (28)
Shyanuja Parathasangary, Royal Mail employee (30)
Miriam Hyman, picture reasearcher (31)
William Wise
Shahara Islam , bank cashier (20)
VICTIMS OF TRAIN BOMBING NEAR KING'S CROSS:
Susan Levy (53)
Ciaran Cassidy (22)
Mihaela Otto, known as Michelle, dental technician (46)
VICTIMS OF TRAIN BOMBING AT EDGWARE ROAD:
Jennifer Nicholson, musical company employee (24)