Warnings before Bali bombing were not disclosed, Straw admits

Jack Straw admitted yesterday that information about intelligence warnings before the Bali bomb blast was withheld. The Foreign Secretary insisted the Government knew nothing in advance that could have averted the attack, but said he had asked Parliament's security and intelligence committee to review the secret information gathered about the threat of attack.

He also issued tougher advice to Britons contemplating travel to Indonesia, reiterating a call for British institutions, businesses and schools in the country to maintain particular vigilance. Mr Straw was making an emergency Commons statement – the second by the Government in a week – on the 12 October atrocity.

Michael Ancram, the shadow Foreign Secretary, had demanded that Mr Straw appear before MPs to clear up alleged confusion in government accounts of intelligence information received about terrorist activity in South-east Asia.

Last Thursday, Mr Straw told the BBC no "specific" warnings about the risk of attack in Bali had been received by the Government. Minutes later, a Downing Street spokesman confirmed a "generic threat" to several places in Indonesia, including Bali, had been passed to Britain.

Tackled in the Commons yesterday on the discrepancy, Mr Straw said: "We first received that information on 27 September and it was then subject to assessment by the security service. Was I aware of that information before I made my statement last Thursday? The answer to that is 'yes', but we had made the judgement that it wouldn't be appropriate to give details about some of that intelligence.

"It happens that, for quite separate reasons, that information was given by my Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer, and that became clear between my statement and when the Downing Street press office held their briefing."

He added: "My view is we should always err on the side of caution when it comes to sourcing intelligence."

Mr Straw stressed that the six islands in the "generic" warning covered 55 per cent of the Indonesian land mass and accounted for 60 per cent of visits by Western tourists. He told MPs: "I dearly wish there had been intelligence that could have prevented this atrocity, but the answer, sadly, is that there was none."

He said he believed "correct judgements were made about the available streams of intelligence", pointing out that Australia, United States and Britain had issued similar travel warnings about Indonesia.

But he said that because of "nagging anxieties" among relatives of the dead he was asking the security and intelligence committee to investigate. The Foreign Secretary again apologised to the families for "shortcomings in getting sufficient extra staff" in place in Bali after the blast.

He warned: "Further attacks can, sadly, not be ruled out." Mr Ancram accused him of leaving an unacceptable "fog of uncertainty" in the public mind.