As Europe's justice and home affairs ministers prepare for emergency talks in Brussels this Friday, it has emerged that one of the men detained in connection with the Madrid massacre has links with Al Qaeda suspects.

The meeting of European Union security chiefs, the consequence of last Thursday's bombings, is to better coordinate counter-terrorism measures across the continent.

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Some Spanish officials still insist that Basque separatists from ETA carried out the Thursday carnage, but the consensus among other European security experts and Americans is that Islamic fundamentalists were responsible.

Stricter passport checks are now inevitable at European points of entry and EU governments are expected to agree to the appointment of an overall security chief.

British officials privately agree that London is high on the list of terrorists because of Prime Minister Tony Blair's strong support for the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

New safety measures are being enforced across London with more plainclothes police on the streets and a new poster campaign urging travellers on the underground network to be wary of any suspicious parcels left unattended.

In Madrid the new Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has described the Iraq war as creating a breeding ground for terrorists. "The war in Iraq was a disaster, the occupation of Iraq is a disaster," Zapatero said in a devastating indictment of Blair and US President George W Bush.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that one of the Moroccans arrested last weekend had been spotted close to one of the bombed out trains in the Spanish capital.

Jamal Zougam is one of five men under interrogation by the Spanish police. The others are two fellow Moroccans and two Indian traders, Suresh Kumar and Vinay Kohli, who are suspected of selling mobile telephones and cards to the bombers.

Both Kumar and Kohli remain under detention, but it is 30-year-old Zougam who is attracting the most interest. Zougam, who ran a shop and two supermarkets in Madrid, was nicknamed 'The Angel' by the Spanish police, who had him under surveillance for three years.

He was briefly arrested in 2001 after the police raided his apartment and found a video showing an interview with Osama bin Laden, mobile telephone numbers of suspected terrorists and a book entitled, The US campaign to destroy Islam.

His associates include Frenchman David Courtellier, whose trial starts tomorrow in Paris, where he is accused of links with a terrorist group that recruited fighters for Afghanistan.

Zougam is also associated with Syrian cleric Abu Dahdah, who is under detention in Spain, and London-based cleric Abu Qatada, who is being held at a top security prison in the UK.