Cameron kept in dark over aircraft bomb

He chaired an hour-long meeting of the Government's emergency committee Cobra amid calls for further tightening of airline security.

A parcel bomb at East Midlands Airport was removed from an aircraft by Leicestershire police officers early on Friday following a tip-off from Saudi intelligence. It had travelled through Germany's Cologne airport before being detected in the UK, officials said. A second was found in Dubai.

It emerged yesterday that neither Mr Cameron nor the Home Office were told about what was happening until about lunchtime on Friday while US President Barack Obama was kept "fully informed" minutes after the bomb was found at 3.30am.

Yemeni security officials said the tip-off about the devices came from a leading al-Qaida militant who turned himself in to Saudi authorities last month. Jabir al-Fayfi told authorities about the plan by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap), the terror group's affiliate in Yemen.

Sources in Saudi Arabia said yesterday security officials gave US investigators the tracking numbers of the packages, one of which, Qatar Airlines has already confirmed, was transported on two separate passenger jets before being found by security staff in Dubai.

Investigators are still piecing together the potency and construction of the two bombs, though it is believed they were designed by a leading explosives expert linked to the failed bombing attempt last Christmas on a Detroit-bound aircraft.

Mr Cameron yesterday thanked the authorities involved in foiling the plot, saying it had "clearly prevented the terrorists from killing and maiming many innocent people".

"While we are rightly engaged in Afghanistan to deny the terrorists there, the threat from the Arabian Peninsula, and from Yemen in particular, has grown," he said.

He told MPs "every possible step" must be taken "to work with our partners in the Arab world to cut out the terrorist cancer that lurks in the Arabian Peninsula".

Norman Shanks, former head of security at airport operator BAA, said it was time to introduce "package by package" screening but Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary warned against overreacting, saying he feared a new raft of "ludicrous" airport security measures.

Shadow Home Secretary Ed Balls praised the "brave and vital work" done by security and police personnel, but, following criticism of the Metropolitan Police who confirmed on Sunday the UK device was at first declared "safe" before being re-examined as a precuation, added: "Why was the device not discovered by police officers during the first search and could earlier information have made a material difference to the search?"

He said the fact that the two devices had been carried on a series of five aircraft, three of them passenger flights, raised "serious questions about the security of our airspace".

Home Secretary Theresa May said restrictions on toner cartridges on flights would be in place initially for one month while work was done to devise "a long-term security regime" to address the new threat.

Mrs May said that during a one-month trial of the cartridge ban the Government would work closely with the aviation industry, screening equipment manufacturers and others, to devise a proportionate, long-term security regime to address the threat.

She said Department for Transport officials were in technical discussions with the industry.

Mrs May added: "We will review all aspects of air freight security and work with international partners to make sure that our defences are as robust as possible.

"We will update the guidance given to airport security personnel based on what we have learned to enable them to identify similar packages in future."

In the US, which has sent officials to Yemen to oversee a cargo security review, the FBI and Homeland Security Department warned officials across the country that packages from abroad with no return address and excessive postage required further examination.

US Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan aired fears about the extent of the latest plot, saying "it would be very imprudent ... to presume that there are no others (packages) out there".