Australian counter-terror group meets

Australia’s national counter-terrorism group met today to discuss the deadly blasts in London, while Canberra set up a hotline for relatives of the hundreds of thousands Australians who live in Britain.

“The national counterterrorism group has already met and is still meeting … (and) is making an assessment of the situation,” said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

He did not explain exactly what the group, made up of government, police, military and intelligence officials, was discussing.

Downer said there was no information suggesting a possible attack on British consular offices in Australia, which like Britain is a close US ally.

“We don’t have any information that there’s likely to be any attack on them but obviously this is something we monitor very closely,” he said.

Some 300,000 Australians live and work in Britain, the vast majority of them in London. A spokesman for the Australian High Commission, located on The Strand in central London, said it was unclear if any Australians had been hurt in the blasts.

“The High Commission consular team is working with local authorities to ascertain if any Australian citizens have been injured,” the spokesman said. “At this point in time it is not possible to confirm if any Australians have been involved.”

The government set up a hot line for relatives of Australians living in Britain to call, but Downer advised them also to try to call their relatives directly.

A spokesman for Prime Minister John Howard said the government was concerned by the blasts.

“Until further details are available we’re not in a position to comment except to say that there’s concern about the reports of what’s occurred,” the spokesman said.