France and Saudi Arabia had advance warning that Britain was about to be attacked by al-Qaida, the Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper said a classified report on the Pakistani community in France said Britain "remains threatened by plans decided at the highest level of al-Qaida... They will be put into action by operatives drawing on pro-jihad sympathies within the large Pakistani community in the UK."

The report was presented in June to the Direction centrale des renseignements generaux (DCRG) roughly the equivalent of the Special Branch of the British police.

The 20-page report, parts of which were published in France's daily Le Figaro, was presented soon after British intelligence chiefs had lowered the al-Qaida threat to "substantial" from "severe-general."

The Joint Terrorist Analysis Center concluded that "there is not a group with both the current intent and the capability to attack the UK."

An Interior Ministry official in Paris declined to comment on the report and refused to say whether the DCRG's warning had been passed to London, the Guardian said.

British security sources had denied that they received any specific threat on which it was possible to act before July 7.

In addition, Saudi Ambassador to London Prince Turki al-Faisal said in a statement last week "There was close liaison between the Saudi Arabian intelligence authorities and British intelligence some months ago, when information was passed to Britain about a heightened terrorist threat to London"

Source: Xinhua