A prime suspect wanted for last week?s attempted London bombings had served a jail sentence for knifepoint robberies and grew to hate the British system after his conviction, newspapers reported yesterday. Prime Minister Tony Blair said much of the world had dropped its guard after the initial shock of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and vowed to give ?not one inch? to terrorists.

?September 11 for me was a wake-up call,? Blair told reporters on Tuesday. ?A lot of the world woke up for a short time and then turned over and went back to sleep again.? The botched bombings on July 21 occurred exactly two weeks after four suicide bombers killed 52 people in a similar attack on London?s transport system. Police have linked the bombers to al Qaeda.

Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, whom police say planted a bomb on a bus in last week?s attempted attacks, was jailed for 5 years in 1996 for mugging people when he was part of a teenage gang, the Daily Telegraph said.The Sun tabloid said Ibrahim arrived in Britain from the East African country of Eritrea in 1992. ?He was very bitter about getting five years (in jail),? the Sun quoted an unnamed associate as saying. ?He was never the same person after.?

Newspapers said Ibrahim and another of the four suspected bombers came to Britain as child refugees from East Africa and had received state welfare payments. The Times called them ?the benefit bombers who repaid help with hatred?, while the Daily Mail said Britain had lost control of its borders and was ?at the mercy of murderous fanatics?. The Home Office (interior ministry) and police declined to comment on the reports.

Police chief Ian Blair said the investigation into the failed attempt to bomb London?s transport network on July 21 was moving at an ?astonishing? pace but warned that the fugitive bombers could strike again. ?They are capable of killing again,? Blair told Channel 4 News television. ?We must find them. We are flat out and we are getting a great deal of intelligence.?

On Tuesday, police said they had found possible material for making explosives at a flat in north London linked to one of four suspects. Police were checking comments by a neighbour that at least one of the suspects may have returned to the flat in north London the day after the attempted bombings on July 21.

<B>Sealed off</B>

?I spotted them on Friday afternoon,? Tanya Wright told the Sun. ?When they spotted me, they turned pale as if they had seen a ghost. I was with my Alsatian (dog). I guess they must have thought I was a policewoman.? A police source, who declined to be identified, said the information could be ?extremely interesting? but that officers had not yet confirmed the witness?s report.

Police sealed off part of one of the busiest roads in north London while they examined an abandoned white Volkswagen Golf car. About 100 people were evacuated from their homes as scores of police, firefighters and ambulance workers went to the scene, witnesses told the BBC. Helicopters patrolled overhead. Police have published photographs of the four suspects from images captured on closed circuit television in the hope of tracking down the bombers.

JULY 21 ATTACKS

<B>Police arrest four men over London bombs</B>

■ Four men were arrested yesterday in Birmingham in connection with the attempted London bomb attacks on July 21, police said.The police declined to say whether any of the men were the suspected bombers involved in the botched July 21 attacks, but the BBC said one man had been a bomber.Police used a stun gun when they arrested one man in the Haymills area of Birmingham.

They said a suspect package was found during the operation and that the man had been taken to a high security detention centre in London.The other three men were detained at a separate address in Birmingham and taken to a police station.The arrests were made in a joint operation involving local police, officers from the London?s Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch and members of security services