Britain a `haven for radicals'

Britain is a haven for Islamic fundamentalists and harbours "all the leaders" of radical Islamic movements. So said Charles Pasqua, the former French Interior Minister, in a television interview when asked to comment on last Tuesday's Paris bomb, writes Mary Dejevsky.

Islamic terrorists also flourish in Belgium and Germany, he said, but it is Britain "where all the leaders of radical Islamic fundamentalist movements are to be found". Mr Pasqua was speaking shortly after the interior ministry disclosed that it had circulated a list of 13 wanted individuals to police forces in Europe.

They are sought in connection with last year's bombings in France, which was linked to the Algerian "Armed Islamic Group".

No one has admitted responsibility for Tuesday's bomb, but its similarities with the bombs of 1995 have encouraged speculation that Islamic fundamentalists were to blame. Although more than 200 people are in French prisons awaiting trial in connection with Islamic terrorism, the French authorities are known to be frustrated that they have not caught those they regard as the instigators and ringleaders.