Sunday, November 6 2005 12:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that the police probably prevented two further terror attempts in the country since the July 7 London bombings.

"The police told me, and the security services back them up, that they may have stopped two further attempts since July 7," Blair told sources.

Though Blair did not elaborate on these terror attempts, he made the revelation to underline the need to get the controversial Anti Terror Bill passed.

The Bill, which contains a proposal to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge as against the current 14 days has earned brickbats from the Opposition as well as from his own party.

The British Government had last week called for negotiations over the controversial element in the Bill after it narrowly avoided defeat in a vote, following a revolt by some Labour members.

Blair said that if the Bill failed to win approval in Parliament, he will "feel a sense of defeat not so much for me, as it were - although obviously that's true - but for the security of the country."

"I find it really odd that we're having to make the case that this is an issue, when virtually every week, somewhere in the world, terrorists loosely linked with the same movement are killing scores of people," Blair said.