The terror links: Three days ago, Australia warned of a new Bali bomb risk. It was news to us, says UK

The Australian government had warned all its citizens not to travel to Indonesia after receiving intelligence that terrorist groups were in the "advanced stages of planning attacks against Western interests". The advice was given just three days ago and specifically mentioned Bali.

But the British Government did not adjust its threat assessment, and did not warn Britons in the area to leave. A Foreign Office spokesman insisted last nightit had not received any specific intelligence warning of an attack in Indonesia. If it had, the spokesman added, the official advice would have been changed.

It is the simultaneous bombing of two resorts ­ and the return to a previous target ­ that point to al-Qa'ida and its followers being behind last night's bloodshed in Bali.

Less than three months ago, but for a couple of mishaps for the terrorists, London would have been hit by two sets of four explosions two weeks apart. When the British consulate and HSBC bank were hit in Istanbul in November 2003, authorities were caught off guard, even though two synagogues had been bombed five days before.

It took the bombers nearly three years to return to Bali, but Indonesian officials have been warning for months that the shadowy Jemaah Islamiyah militant network, seen as the regional arm of al-Qa'ida, was planning more attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Since the previous Bali atrocity there had been two bloody bombings in the capital, Jakarta.

Last night's bombings are a far more typical jihadi operation than the assault on London: of the 24 significant terrorist attacks since 11 September 2001, all but two have taken place in Muslim countries. Like those behind the bombing of the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in July, yesterday's terrorists waited for Westerners to fly to them. There have been six attacks on visitors to Muslim countries in the past 12 months.

Although attacks on the West are regularly thwarted, intelligence chiefs concede there is little they can do to forestall attacks in many Muslim countries.