Britain backtracks over advice to US on Detroit bomber

Britain and America's intelligence relationship was today hit by an extraordinary row over the sharing of information on the Christmas Day bomber.

The dispute was triggered yesterday when the Prime Minister's official spokesman said that intelligence on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's "activities" was given to the US authorities.

The Standard has been told that this referred to information on the 23-yearold Nigerian "reaching out" to extremists while under surveillance by MI5 when he was in Britain between 2005 and 2008, studying at University College, London.

But a White House source denied that Washington has been told about such links, branding the claim a "mistake".

This morning No 10 stuck to its line, making clear that intelligence was communicated on Abdulmutallab to the US authorities before 25 December.

A spokesman said: "In regard to the Detroit bomber, the UK and US had gathered partial information and this had been shared in the usual way. Since the incident, we have built up a fuller picture."

But hours later, after talks with the White House, the Prime Minister's spokesman appeared to change tack.

Despite the earlier statements, he repeatedly refused to confirm that information on Abdulmutallab was forwarded to the US intelligence agencies before Christmas Day.

In what appeared to be a desperate attempt to stop the row escalating, he stressed: "There is no suggestion that the UK passed on information to the US that they did not act on."

The White House did not officially comment yesterday but a source close to the Obama administration described the suggestion that America had been warned about Abdulmutallab's links to extremists as a "mistake".

Barack Obama was today meeting his security and intelligence chiefs before outlining reforms aimed at thwarting such attacks.