Omagh bomb 'could have been prevented'

*The British and Irish governments will today come under the strongest pressure yet to agree to an international inquiry into the Omagh bombing after claims the attack could have been prevented.

The 1998 car bomb was the worst single atrocity of the Troubles, killing 29 people plus unborn twins. It is now claimed that intelligence officials were recording the bombers' mobile phone calls as they carried out the attack.

Bereaved relatives said their longstanding demands for a public inquiry must now be answered after a new documentary will claim the phone-tap information was never passed to detectives investigating the bombing, carried out by the Real IRA.

The Government is also being challenged to reveal if it knew the bombers' phones were tapped, after the details of a Home Office meeting reportedly showed officials discussing how the failure to use information from a telephone intercept led to an unspecified terrorist act.

The bombers have never been brought to justice. Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son, Aiden, died in the blast, said: "We have been demanding a public inquiry since 2002 into the abysmal failure of the police inquiries," he said. "The Government can no longer resist this." The new allegations are made in BBC1's Panorama tonight.