Inquiry would distract, says anti-terrorism chief

LONDON, Apr 30 (Reuters) A public inquiry into the July 7, 2005 London bomb attacks would be a distraction for detectives in the fight against militant extremists, Britain's top counter-terrorism officer said today.

Peter Clarke, head of London's Counter Terrorism Command, was speaking after revelations that two of the four suicide bombers on July 7 had been monitored by spies 16 months before the attacks prompted calls for a independent review.

Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer were seen by surveillance officers up to four times meeting Omar Khyam, who was jailed today for plotting bomb attacks across Britain using fertiliser-based explosives.

But a limit on resources and a decision at the time in 2004 to follow what were believed to be higher priorities meant Khan and Tanweer were not pursued.

Opposition parties, and some of the survivors and relatives of those who died in the London bombs have demanded that the government hold an inquiry to see if there had been intelligence failures.

Clarke said everybody involved in anti-terrorism in Britain was ''desperately saddened'' that the attacks of July 7 had not been prevented. But he said an inquiry would not help.

''Speaking for the police service I can say that we have nothing to fear from such an inquiry,'' he told reporters.

''But on the other hand I wouldn't welcome it because we are stretched in working to the utmost in trying to keep the public safe. A public inquiry would be a distraction of those resources that we so desperately need to keep focused on public safety.'' However, Clarke agreed it was important that the public, and relatives of the victims in particular, did receive as much information as possible.

''I can understand how relatives must feel given that they now know that there were some links between the people who have been convicted today and some of those connected with the July 7th plot,'' he said.

Clarke said the fertiliser bomb plot had been a landmark for the police, representing the biggest anti-terrorism operation ever carried out in Britain.

He described the five men found guilty of planning attacks as ''not a group of young idealists'' but ''well-trained, dedicated, ruthless terrorists''.

''This was the first time that we had seen a group of young British men apparently intent on killing as many as possible of their fellow citizens,'' he said.

''If these men had succeeded in achieving their objective there's no doubt at all the carnage would have been immense.'' He said officers would learn from the case but warned: ''What we are learning is the scale of this problem and the complexity of this problem is quite simply staggering.'' Reuters JS RS2228