Blair Rejects London Bombings Inquiry

[Agency Reports] - UK Prime Minister Tony Blair today rejected an opposition call for an inquiry into how the London bombings might have been prevented.

Blair said it would be an unnecessary diversion at a time the security services, military and police are on such a high state of alert and fully occupied hunting the bombers. He also said the government held the right to introduce new anti-terrorist legislation should the security forces require them to prevent another attack, but said the government is sticking to its timetable to introduce already planned anti-terrorism legislation later this year.

The proposed bill will be a follow-up to a controversial law, adopted earlier this year, that empowered the authorities to slap 'control orders' which confine individuals to home detention merely on suspicion. Britain's anti-terrorism already controversially enables the detention of foreign terrorism suspects indefinitely without trial.

Blair confirmed today that the three bombs on the London Underground last Thursday went off within 50 seconds of each other, and added that they were likely planted by 'Islamist extremist terrorists'. He confirmed the number of dead has risen to 52, with another 56 still in hospital.