Anarchists blamed for EU bombs

A fourth letter bomb aimed at a pan-European institution in less than a week was intercepted and defused yesterday in Amsterdam.

Investigators said that the bombs appeared to come from an anarchist group in the northern Italian city of Bologna.

Yesterday's bomb was detected at the headquarters of Eurojust, an EU-sponsored body dedicated to law enforcement. It was dismantled before it could explode. It followed the detection of two bombs on Monday, one addressed to Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank at the bank's office in Frankfurt, and another to Europol, the police agency in The Hague.

The only device of the four to have exploded was one opened by Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, at his home in Bologna on Saturday. The parcel contained a book and burst into flames while he was opening it. Mr Prodi was shaken but unhurt.

This incident followed the detonation of two small bombs in rubbish bins outside Mr Prodi's home on 21 December, starting a small fire.

A group calling itself the "Informal Anarchic Federation" claimed responsibility for those devices. It said it had planted the bombs to "hit at the apparatus of control that is repressive and leading the democratic show that is the new European order".

The message went on to say that the attacks were carried out to make sure that Mr Prodi "knows that the manoeuvres have only begun to get close to him and others like him".