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LONDON - Britain's counter-terrorism efforts are "in the wrong century", said the head of Interpol, accusing it of failing to share information on terrorists and consult a key database of the world police body.
The harsh criticism from Interpol boss Ronald Noble may come as an embarrassment to
British authorities investigating failed car bomb attacks in London and Scotland last month by suspected Islamist militants from the Middle East and India.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a weekend interview that information held by one country on terrorist recruitment should also flow to other countries.
Noble said Britain had not shared such data.
"The UK has not shared its terrorist watch list with Interpol," Noble said in an open letter on the organisation's Web site, www.interpol.int
"The UK might lose a significant investigative lead; the country consulting Interpol would obtain no or incomplete information; and those individuals on the UK terrorist watch list would remain free to plan and carry out more terrorist attacks."
Noble also slammed a failure by British authorities to systematically check the passports of foreign visitors against an Interpol global database containing details of more than seven million lost and stolen passports.
There was a "clear link between stolen passports and al Qaeda-linked terrorist activity", he told the BBC.
"The UK's anti-terrorist effort is in the wrong century."
Noble has long warned that countries are playing into the hands of terrorists and criminals if they fail to clamp down on the use of stolen passports, but he said only 17 of Interpol's 186 member countries were systematically checking the database.
"On the other hand, all countries systematically check our bags to see if we are carrying bottles of water or other liquids. These priorities seem misplaced," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Home Office, Britain's interior ministry, said Britain worked closely with Interpol and its Serious and Organised Crime Agency consulted the organisation's databases on behalf of other British law enforcement agencies.
Britain has been a frequent target of al Qaeda-inspired attacks, including one in which four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 others in 2005.
In the latest case, one man has been charged and seven people are under arrest - one in Australia - over last month's two failed London car bombs and an attack on a Scottish airport.
Counter-terrorism minister Alan West was delivering an interim report to Brown on Monday on how to improve security screening of skilled foreign workers entering Britain, following revelations that most of the suspects were doctors or medical staff. Three are Indian, the rest from the Middle East.
- REUTERS