Britain's counter-terrorism efforts are "in the wrong century", the head of Interpol said today, accusing it of failing to share information on militants and consult a vital global police database.
The harsh and embarrassing criticism from Ronald Noble, head of the 186-nation police organisation, came as investigations into a suspected al Qaeda car bomb plot involving Indian and Arab medics stretched from Britain as far as Australia.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stressed the need for countries to exchange information on suspected militants, but Noble said Britain was not passing on such data.
"The UK has not shared its terrorist watch list with Interpol," he said in an open letter on the organisation's web site.
He said this could have damaging consequences if other countries approached Interpol for information on suspects.
"The UK might lose a significant investigative lead; the country consulting Interpol would obtain no or incomplete information; and those individuals on the UK terrorist watch list would remain free to plan and carry out more terrorist attacks."
Noble also slammed a failure by British authorities to systematically check the passports of foreign visitors against an Interpol global database containing details of more than seven million lost and stolen passports.
There was a "clear link between stolen passports and al Qaeda-linked terrorist activity", he told the BBC.
"The UK's anti-terrorist effort is in the wrong century."