Islamists quizzed as Britain issues Saudi warning

Police quizzed suspected Islamic militants in Britain and Germany on Saturday as the British embassy in Saudi Arabia warned that "terrorists may be in the final phases of planning attacks" in the Gulf state.

Turkish police arrested a man they say ordered and helped plan a suicide bomb attack on an Istanbul synagogue earlier this month while in Algeria, Islamic rebels were reported to have ambushed and killed a leading Saudi poet.

In Italy, where police said on Friday they had smashed a network suspected of recruiting suicide bombers, newspapers were full of reports that Muslim militants viewed Eastern Europe as fertile ground for their operations.

They said militants were using the mountains of Austria as a refuge.

The warning from the British embassy in Saudi Arabia served to remind some 30,000 Britons there that they are still at risk from attacks from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

It came four days after Saudi officials said they thwarted a planned strike by militants who had packed a car with more than a tonne of explosives.

"The discovery on November 25 by the Saudi authorities of a terrorist plot shows the terrorist threat across Saudi Arabia remains high," the British embassy said in a statement.

"As well as continuing to advise against all but essential travel to Saudi Arabia, the (British Foreign Office) travel advice warns that terrorists may be in the final phases of planning attacks in the kingdom."

British police questioned a suspected would-be suicide bomber for the third day running after a series of raids on 10 addresses in central and southwest England since Thursday.

The discovery of explosives in the house where he was seized has sparked a frenzy of media speculation that he may have been planning the country's first suicide attack.