Erekat to Israel: Don’t use London blasts

After Israel tried to link London blasts to the Palestinian resistance, senior negotiator Saeb Erekat warned it against using the attacks to "score points" diplomatically.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom tried to equate Thursday's bombings with the Palestinian attacks against Israel, but Erekat made clear that London blasts are "different" from the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation.

"I can't stand making these comparisons," he said.

"Israel and others shouldn't try to use this tragedy to score points against anyone else. Let's not make any comparisons."

Erekat also said that the Palestinian Authority condemns "with the strongest possible terms these crimes against humanity.

"We want to convey our most sincere condolences to the victims and pray for their speedy recovery. Our message to British officials is one of solidarity in this difficult period," he said.

After the attacks, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered his government not to make any remarks equating the blasts with the situation in Israel.

"It is not our incident, and there is no need to talk [about it] beyond expressing shock," a source in Sharon's office said.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Israel tried to link the tragedy to the Palestinian resistance.

On Thursday, Shalom and Israeli Finance Minister Binyamin Netanhayu made similar remarks, but only to the Hebrew-language media.

Shalom said: "This attack shows us once again that terrorism is not Israel's problem only,"

"Terrorism can hit everywhere and against everyone. ... We should do everything we can in order to fight the extremists to put an end to their efforts."

The source in Sharon's office said that the Prime Minister's decision not to give interviews to foreign media was taken after reports that the Israeli embassy in London received a pre-attack warning minutes before the first explosion.

The official warned of the "danger that this kind of report can bring to Israel."

Correspondents say that Sharon wants to keep a low profile to avoid stirring anti-Israel sentiment in Britain or causing any fallout in relations, which have sometimes been rocky.

One Israeli official said that the "conspiracy theory" about Israel's pre-attack warning lasted all day, despite official denials, because a dispute still rages about whether Israeli officials informed British intelligence before the Israeli embassy was bombed in 1994.

Other officials cited the 9/11 reports that Israelis received a warning to leave the World Trade Center before the attacks.