Police try to appease Muslims after London raid

LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) Police today defended last week's big raid in east London by officers looking for a chemical bomb, which provoked anger from Muslim groups after detectives said no device had been found.

More than 250 officers, some wearing protective suits, took part in last Friday's raid on a house in the ethnically mixed Forest Gate area.

Two men were arrested by anti-terrorist detectives, one of whom was shot during the operation. Muslim groups said the action was excessive and had inflamed fears in their community.

The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) said it felt ''sadness and horror'' at the ''apparent security blunder''.

''The MAB ... condemns unequivocally the disproportionate use of force that has worsened an already volatile atmosphere and increased the climate of fear amongst British Muslims,'' the group said in a statement today.

At a news conference, London police's Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman apologised for the disruption the raid had caused.

But he said police had ''no choice'' but to act on ''very specific intelligence'', which sources have told Reuters related to the manufacture of a bomb which would release a toxic gas or poison when detonated.

Failure to have taken action would have put the public at potential risk and been a dereliction of duty, Hayman added.

''I'm absolutely content that what we did last week was necessary and proportionate,'' he told reporters today, adding he understood some people felt confused and angry.

Hayman said large numbers of officers were involved because police had been chastened by the murder of detective Stephen Oake who was stabbed to death by an Algerian man during an anti-terrorism raid in Manchester in 2004.

Oake's killer was later convicted of plotting attacks with bombs or poisons.

''We have to learn from those experiences,'' Hayman said.

The investigation itself was now focused on completing the house search and questioning the two arrested bothers, aged 23 and 20, he added.

Police were yesterday given more time to quiz the men, who deny any involvement in terrorism.

The apparent lack of evidence following the high-profile raid, one of the biggest since last July's suicide bomb attacks on London, has led to accusations that the Britain's 1.6 million Muslims were being targeted.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he was ''101 per cent'' behind the police and Hayman rejected claims from some commentators that 3,000 Muslim homes had been raided by police since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

''I can assure you that no individual or family are targeted by their race, religion or their faith,'' he said.

REUTERS KD RAI1859