British police have released one of the 24 suspects in the London bomb plot without charge, but have been granted permission to hold 22 people until next Wednesday.

A decision on the other suspect will be taken on Monday.

The police crackdown, 13 months after four suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system, has prompted a reaction from British Muslims who say that they are being demonised by the militancy of a few.

In an open letter to Tony Blair, the British prime minister, leading British Muslim groups and politicians criticised British foreign policies on Iraq and the Middle East crisis and said that these policies were putting civilians at increased risk of attack in Britain and elsewhere.

"The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all," they said in the letter, published in the Times newspaper.

Fuelling the fire

Many Muslims are critical of Blair's decisions to commit British troops to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and not to call for an immediate halt to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

"We urge the prime minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy," said the letter, whose signatories included six politicians from Blair's Labour party.

Responding to the letter, Douglas Alexander, the British transport secretary, told Britain's Channel 4 television: "Nothing justifies the kind of actions which terrorists perpetrate."

Airport traffic

Chaos at London airports eased on Friday as passengers became used to tight security measures such as the ban on liquids being carried on to flights from US or British airports.

British Airways warned customers to expect further flight delays and cancellations at Heathrow airport on Saturday.

PHOTO CAPTION

A British Airways aircraft takes off from Heathrow airport in London August 11, 2006. (Reuters)