European anti-terrorism officials were to meet in Madrid yesterday to help coordinate a police probe into the March 11 suspected al Qaeda-linked train bombings that killed 202 people.

Security experts from the European Union?s five biggest members were due to hold talks at an undisclosed location as police hunt for further suspects of the attack, which injured more than 1,800.

Five of the 10 suspects already arrested were expected to appear in a Spanish court yesterday, court sources said.

The bombings of four commuter trains, believed to be the first Islamist strike in the West since the September 11, 2001, attacks on US cities, have sparked a security shake-up across the EU and put Western capitals on alert.

Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes, who announced the emergency Madrid meeting four days after the attack, said its aim was ?to coordinate inquiries and efforts, exchange information and plan for the future?.

The meeting is limited to Spain, Britain, Italy, Germany and France. Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said in Brussels on Monday that restricting the guest list to Europe?s big five was ?a mistake.?

Cross-border intelligence cooperation is seen as crucial to trace possible links between the bombings and suspected al Qaeda-linked cells abroad and redress what some officials see as a failure of Western security services to anticipate the strike.

?Almost all the events that took place in the last days, weeks and months prove that intelligence is not able to provide the necessary information to protect our people,? Cimoszewicz said.

The Madrid talks coincide with a gathering of EU foreign ministers in Brussels to discuss the fight against terrorism and follows a meeting on Friday of interior and justice ministers who agreed to appoint a counter-terrorism czar.

Iraq withdrawal

The Madrid strike ? three days before an election that handed a shock victory to Spain?s Socialists ? has been claimed by a militant Islamic group aligning itself to Osama bin Laden?s al Qaeda.

Spain has arrested six Moroccans, two Indians and a Spaniard. The nationality of the 10th suspect has not been disclosed.

Spain?s High Court last week accused three Moroccans of 190 murders and belonging to a terrorist organisation.

Acebes has promised more arrests and police have identified four more Moroccans believed central to the attack, Spain?s ABC newspaper said on Sunday.

The bombings have had far-reaching political reverberations after the Socialists? leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ousted the centre-right government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.

Zapatero, 43, has vowed to stand by a pre-election pledge to withdraw Spain?s 1,300 troops from Iraq, unless the United Nations takes control there by mid-year.

That promise has irked Washington and prompted talks to find a U.N. agreement that could enable Spanish troops to stay.

Support for Zapatero?s anti-war stance snowballed in the wake of the blasts, seen by many Spaniards as revenge by radical Islamists for Aznar?s unswerving support for the US-led war. (Additional reporting by Madrid bureau, Paul Taylor in Brussels)

Katherine Baldwin