Pak should do more to root out terror: Brown

Pakistan needs to "do more" to root out terrorism emanating from its soil, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said, a day after the police there arrested 12 al-Qaeda suspects, including 11 Pakistanis, over a "very big terrorist plot".

Brown's remarks follow resignation of the UK's top counter-terrorism expert Bob Quick after a security blunder by the police officer, who inadvertently disclosed a covert surveillance operation against al-Qaeda suspects, forcing premature raids by police across north-west England.

"One of the lessons we have learnt is that Pakistan has to do more to root out terrorist elements in its country as well," Brown told Sky News. After they were forced to launch the operation ahead of schedule, police arrested the 12 suspects in raids in eight addresses in Manchester and Liverpool on Wednesday.

"It is right we took the urgent action that we did yesterday," Brown said last evening. He said the raids targeted those behind "a very big terrorist plot", which authorities "have been following ... for some time".

The Prime Minister said Quick, who was the Assistant Commissioner in Metropolitan Police, offered him a personal apology after his carelessness jeopardised the operation. Britain has taken up the issue of arrest of the Pakistani suspects with Islamabad.