UK Terror Threat: Ministers refute charges

British ministers have hit back at accusations from leading Muslims, including three Labour MPs, that UK's Middle East policy was increasing the threat of terror attacks.

Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander, along with Home Secretary John Reid and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, has taken the lead in responding to last week's alleged plot to blow up a number of planes denounced the suggestion as "dangerous and foolish."

Reacting to an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair signed by the MPs, three Muslim members of the House of Lords and leading Muslim community organizations, Alexander yesterday pointed out that terrorists had targeted countries with a range of foreign policies."No government worth its salt should allow its foreign policy to be dictated to under the threat of terrorism."

Earlier, Beckett told the BBC that drawing a link between government policy and the terror threat would be the "gravest possible error." She said such suggestions were "part of a distorted view of the world, a distorted view of life. Let's put the blame where it belongs with people who wantonly want to take innocent lives."

Blair, in a statement, said: "We should always remember that the terrorism affecting the West today has blighted Muslim countries for several decades." He said it had long preceded Britain's part in the American-led attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq - two of the issues raised in the letter, which was published as an advert in several newspapers.