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Seven people have now been arrested after a blazing jeep was crashed into Glasgow airport on Saturday and two cars were found outside a London nightclub loaded with gas canisters and nails on Friday.

A blazing jeep was crashed into the terminal of Glasgow airport on Saturday

Scottish police said two men aged 25 and 28 were arrested under the anti-terrorism laws on Sunday night in the Paisley area of Glasgow.

Peter Clarke, head of London’s anti-terrorism branch, said that the investigation was “extremely fast-moving” and said links between the attacks were becoming “ever clearer”.

“I’m confident, absolutely confident, that in the coming days and weeks we will be able to gain a thorough understanding of the methods used by the terrorists, the way in which they planned their attacks and the network to which they belong,” he said.

The attacks led to the government raising the security alert level for the country to “critical”, the highest on a five-level scale.

‘Worst time’

But on Monday, British newspapers argued against the government rushing through new “anti-terrorism” legislation.

The Daily Telegraph said in an editorial: “The immediate aftermath of a terrorist atrocity is the worst possible time to legislate.

“The government’s response to the bombers should be proportionate to the threat faced, not to the public outrage.”

The Independent took a similar line saying it “is vital that the prime minister does not rush through new repressive anti-terror laws … it is vital that our political leaders pause for thought”.

The Labour government of Tony Blair, the former prime minister, tried to push through new laws after the 2005 London transport system bombings that killed 52 people.

The bill, which would have let police detain suspects for 90 days without charge, was defeated.

Controlled explosion

Gordon Brown, the new prime minister who replaced Blair on Wednesday, said before taking office last week that he wanted police to have the extended detention rights.

Properties in Glasgow, Liverpool and central England were searched on Sunday

The Daily Mail, a newspaper that is often critical of the governing Labour Party, offered tentative praise for Brown and Jacqui Smith, the new interior minister.

“This time … there has been no political grandstanding, no promises of ‘tough’ new measures. Instead, Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith concentrate on reassuring the public and letting police and MI5 [the domestic intelligence service] get on with the job. And that is surely right,” it said.

Police confirmed on Sunday that one man and one woman arrested on a motorway near Liverpool were being interviewed in London.

They also said that a controlled explosion had been carried out on a car outside a hospital where one of the Glasgow suspects is being treated for burns.

A British government security official told the Associated Press that a loose UK-wide network appeared to be behind the attacks but investigators were struggling to ascertain suspects’ identities.

“These are not the type of people who always carry identity documents, or who use their real identities,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Homes raided

Residents of homes near addresses being raided by police officers in central England and Liverpool said the residents were doctors or medical students. Police in London and Glasgow refused to comment on the claim.

The United States increased security at airports following the attempted attacks in Britain, while Michael Chertoff, homeland security secretary, said that more air marshals were being deployed on flights to Britain.

George Bush, the US president, praised Brown’s “very strong response” to the situation during during a visit by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

Jose Socrates, the Portuguese prime minister, admitted that a “misunderstanding” with Poland over EU voting would still have to be overcome.

Socrates said that the summit in Brussels on June 21-22 had given a “clear and detailed” mandate for a new treaty to make EU decision-making easier and end the crisis caused by the French and Dutch rejections in 2005 of an EU constitution.

The 27 EU leaders agreed an outline for a treaty which must now be completed by Portugal.

But Poland, which had threatened to veto the Brussels accord, is again asking for clarification.

Minority votes

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Polish prime minister, said that the Brussels summit had agreed a mechanism that would allow countries to block contested decisions for up to two years if it had sufficient minority votes.

The text adopted in Brussels talked only of “a reasonable delay.”

Socrates said that the issue would be “quickly overcome.” Portuguese officials said privately however that a solution with Poland could still drag on.

That could mean the treaty may not be sealed before the next EU summit, which will be held in Lisbon in October.

An inter-governmental conference that will draw up the treaty is to start work on July 23. Portugal will submit a draft treaty to the conference.

Ratification

Luis Amado, Portugal’s foreign minister, said: “If there are problems of interpretation on what is written in the mandate, there will have to be a new political discussion.”

These talks would take place at an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in the Portuguese city of Porto in September.

Amado said: “That is when we will see if there are clouds on the horizon.”

Brown unveiled his cabinet on Thursday amid reports Tony Blair, Britain’s ex-leader, has faced further police questioning over allegations of a “cash-for-honours” scandal.

David Miliband, who was named foreign secretary, is the youngest person to hold the post in 30 years and has been tipped as a future Labour Party leader.

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He was reported to be sceptical of Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq and is said to have disapproved of the former leader’s refusal to call for an immediate halt to last year’s war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.

Alistair Darling, one of the most experienced ministers in the government, was appointed as finance minister.

Darling, who takes over the role of finance minister from Brown, was close to Blair and served under him for all 10 years of his premiership.

But Robert Peston, Brown’s biographer, has described Darling as “one of Brown’s oldest and most loyal political friends”.

The Guardian, a British newspaper, called him “the ultimate grey man”.

He inherits an economy with a less rosy outlook than when Brown held the post, with interest rates on the rise amid growing inflation.

Reshuffle

Des Browne, who survived pressure to resign earlier this year after allowing British sailors who had been detained by Iran to sell their stories to the media, remains as defence minister.

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The new cabinet also includes Jacqui Smith, one of the 101 women elected to parliament alongside Blair and later termed the “Blair babes”, as home secretary.

The first woman to hold the position, Smith replaces John Reid, the former home secretary.

Jack Straw, who had served under Blair as home secretary and then as foreign secretary but was later removed from office, returned under Brown’s new cabinet as justice secretary.

Mark Malloch Brown, a former deputy secretary-general of the UN, was appointed as minister for Africa, Asia and the UN.

“Cash-for-honours”

While Brown spent his first day as prime minister, Blair was again questioned by police investigating allegations of illegal party funding.

Police would not confirm whether the former prime minister had been interviewed.

Since March last year, detectives have been investigating whether political parties nominated people for peerages, which come with seats in the House of Lords, the UK parliament’s unelected upper house, in return for cash.

Blair has been questioned twice before as a witness, the first serving prime minister to be quizzed in a criminal investigation.

Prosecutors are considering whether charges should be brought against individuals involved in the probe, which cast a shadow over the final months of Blair’s premiership.

Detectives also investigated whether members of Blair’s inner circle concealed evidence from police.

Three people remain on police bail, two of them close aides of Blair, under suspicion of taking part in a cover-up.

All those questioned in the probe deny any wrongdoing.

Peter Clarke, Britain’s head of counter terrorism, said the second car found on Friday contained nails and canisters of petrol - the same materials found in the first one.

“These vehicles are clearly linked,” Clarke told reporters at a press conference.

He called the discovery “obviously troubling” and said that both had been set to explode in London’s entertainment district.

The second “bomb” was discovered in a Mercedes that had been parked illegally in London’s West End and towed to an impound lot near Hyde Park.

‘Fresh warning’

The first device was discovered when an ambulance crew treating a person at the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Haymarket called police explosives experts after noticing smoke issuing from a Mercedes outside the nightclub just before 02:00am (01:00 GMT).

Police later said that inside the car they found “quantities of petrol” and a “large number” of nails.

A large area near Piccadilly Circus, packed with tourists, theatres, restaurants and pubs, was sealed off after the car was found and office workers were unable to enter their buildings at the start of the work day.

Police plan to examine footage from closed-circuit television cameras in the area, hoping to track down those involved.

Speaking before the second device was found, Gordon Brown, UK’s new prime minister, said the alert was a fresh warning of the threat faced by London.

“The first duty of a government is the security of the people and as the police and security services have said on so many occasions we face a serious and continued security threat to our country,” he said.

Steve Park, a security analyst, told Al Jazeera that it was not clear if the bomb had been intended for the night club as there were other potential targets in the area, but he said the bomb had been intended to injure as many people as possible.

Park said: “The bomb was made for massive collateral damage … it’s at the very bad end of making bombs.”

‘International terrorism’

Jacqui Smith, UK’s new interior minister, called an emergency meeting of officials, saying the attempted attack was “international terrorism”.

“We are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism,” she said.

“This reinforces the need for the public to remain vigilant to the threat we face at all times.”

Security around parliament was stepped up, with police body-searching drivers of vehicles entering the area.

Earlier in the year, a number of people were jailed for life for plotting to attack a number of targets in Britain, including a prominent London nightclub.

Last year in November, a man was jailed for 30 years for plotting to detonate limousines packed with explosives near landmarks in London and New York.

Voter turnout in Sunday’s election run-off was about 85 per cent - the highest since 1981.

Sarkozy supporters celebrate on the Champs-Elysees in Paris

The 52-year-old Sarkozy won 53.1 per cent of the vote in the second-round ballot.

He presented himself as the “candidate of work”, promising to loosen the 35-hour work week by offering tax breaks on overtime and to trim fat from the public service, cut taxes and wage war on unemployment.

He will succeed fellow conservative Jacques Chirac, who was president for 12 years.

Sarkozy’s face flashed up on television screens after polling stations closed at 8pm (18:00 GMT), signalling his victory and setting off jubilant scenes among thousands of supporters who had gathered in central Paris.

But there were also skirmishes between leftist supporters and police in at least one city square and reports of sporadic violence in two suburbs near the capital.

At the Socialist headquarters there was gloom after the party crashed to its third consecutive presidential election defeat. It now faces the prospect of tough internal reforms to make itself more appealing to voters.

Call for unity

In a speech at the UMP headquarters, Sarkozy said: “To all those French who did not vote for me, I want to say, beyond political battles, beyond differences of opinion, for me there is only one France. I want to tell them that I will be president of all the French.”

European Union leaders congratulated Sarkozy, who promised to put France back into the driving seat of Europe after the country voted down the EU constitution in a 2005 referendum.

Said Sarkozy after his win: “I want to launch a call to our European partners, with whom our destiny is deeply linked, to tell them that I have been European all my life, that I believe deeply, that I believe sincerely, in European construction and that tonight France is back in Europe.

George Bush, the US president, also telephoned to offer his congratulations and said he expected good relations with Sarkozy, who has made a priority of repairing the damage to French-US relations caused by tensions over the Iraq war.

Disagreeing friends

Sarkozy told the US “that France will always be by their side when they will need her”.

People Views

“With Sarkozy as president, there will be a new France … aligned on the US foreign policy, very close to Israel and less concerned with international legality”

al_morro, Mexico

“But I want to tell them as well that friendship is accepting that one’s friends can act differently, and that a great nation like the United States has the duty to not obstruct the fight against global warming but on the contrary to head this struggle because what is at stake is the future of all humanity. France will make this struggle its first struggle.”

Although opinion polls regularly suggested Royal, who was seeking to become France’s first female head of state, was more likeable, voters seemed to see the uncompromising Sarkozy as a more competent leader with a more convincing economic programme.

Talking before her supporters, Royal said: “I hope the next president of the republic fulfils his role in the service of all French people … I will continue with you and near you…You can count on me to deepen the renovation of the left … that is the condition of our future victories.”