LONDON - The British government angrily rejected on Monday a report which said its backing for war in Iraq had raised the risk of terrorist attack, as ministers cast around for new laws to help stop a repeat of attacks on London.
The respected Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) said the invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath had boosted recruitment and fund-raising for al Qaeda, suspected of being behind London bombings on July 7.
Police said on Monday the death toll from the London underground train and bus bombings had risen by one to 56.
The RIIA report was issued as interior minister Charles Clarke met opposition party leaders to seek a consensus over tougher anti-terror legislation.
The government is due to meet senior members of Britain's Muslim community on Tuesday to discuss responses to the bombings.
On Monday, Imams from about 500 British mosques issued a fatwa, or edict, condemning violence and presented it to politicians at Westminster. The fatwa will be read out at mosques during prayers this Friday.
Officials say the government is looking to target extremists, particularly Islamic clerics, who glorify or encourage terrorist acts. Such figures could be banned from entering Britain or deported if they are already in the country.
The government also wants to outlaw "acts preparatory to terrorism", such as giving or receiving training for attacks.
Clarke said he and his opposite numbers had agreed to publish legislation in October with a view to passing it into law by the year-end. Further consultation on the detail would continue in the meantime.
"We will cooperate with the government to ensure that the legislation ... does the job it is set out to do and it is put on the Statute Book as quickly as possible," opposition Conservative home affairs spokesman David Davis told reporters.
Police searching for a support network of planners, bomb-makers and financiers, say they have found no indication the explosives carried timers, meaning they were manually detonated by the four bombers.
Three were young British Muslims of Pakistani descent. The fourth was a Jamaican-born Briton.
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Pakistani immigration officials said three of the bombers entered Pakistan through Karachi last year.
Several militants have been detained in Pakistan since July 7 although no link had been established.
Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet British Muslim community leaders on Tuesday to find ways of tackling the root causes of terrorism and preventing the message of extremists resonating.
"We all have to recognise where this perversion of Islam comes from," Blair's spokesman said. "We all have to stand together and deal with it. That includes the Muslim community."
London, which is also looking to build a similar dialogue in Muslim countries abroad, received support from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Denouncing the London bombings as "unIslamic", Musharraf said some Islamic schools were involved in terrorism. Britain has expressed concern about the schools.
The RIIA said Britain had created its own problems by playing "pillion passenger" to Washington. "The UK is at particular risk because it is the closest ally of the United States," said security experts Frank Gregory and Paul Wilkinson.
That provoked a strikingly robust rebuttal.
"The time for excuses for terrorism is over. The terrorists have struck across the world, in countries allied with the United States, backing the war in Iraq, and in countries which had nothing whatever to do with the war in Iraq," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in Brussels.
Blair, whose trust ratings plunged over the Iraq conflict, has always rejected the notion that Britain's involvement there and in Afghanistan has made it less safe.
But Wilkinson and Gregory said al Qaeda's profile had been raised by Iraq, boosting the network's propaganda, recruitment and fundraising.
Additional reporting by Paul Majendie and Mark Trevelyan in London, Marie-Louise Moller in Brussels
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