Britain investigating Mossad spy link

Britain has invited Israel's ambassador to the Foreign Office to discuss the use of fake British passports by suspected killers of a top Hamas figure in Dubai, a spokesman said yesterday.

"Given the links to Israel of a number of British nationals affected, there will be a meeting between the FCO Permanent Under Secretary and the Israeli ambassador tomorrow," said the spokesman.

Speculation about who was behind the killing of Mahmud al-Mabhuh last month has centred on Israel's Mossad intelligence services, which have used agents with fake foreign passports for such operations in the past.

Dubai's police chief this week released the photos and names of the 11 European passport holders - six from Britain, three from Ireland, one from Germany and one from France - alleged to have been members of the hit squad.

"The defrauding of British passports is a very serious issue. The government will continue to take all the action that is necessary to protect British nationals from identity fraud," said the British government spokesman.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday pledged a full investigation into how faked British passports were linked to the killing of a top Hamas man in Dubai as Israel remained ambiguous over speculation that its storied Mossad secret service was behind the murder.

The killing of top Hamas militant Mahmud al-Mabhuh while on an apparent weapons purchasing trip last month has widely been blamed on the Mossad. However, no evidence has yet linked the agency, which is keeping mum on the affair in line with tradition.

The Prime Minister pledged a "full investigation" after it emerged that the assassins appeared to have stolen the identities of at least seven Israeli dual nationals, six of them British passport holders.

"We have got to carry out a full investigation into this. The British passport is an important document that has got to be held with care," Mr Brown told London's LBC Radio.

"The evidence has got to be assembled about what has actually happened and how it happened and why it happened and it is necessary for us to accumulate that evidence before we can make statements."