Turkish and Israeli security officials picked through debris seeking clues as to who was behind two bombs that killed 22 people at Istanbul synagogues, as Israel?s foreign minister flew to the city yesterday.

Officials said international groups ? possibly including al Qaeda ? might have had a hand in the Saturday morning blasts, which wrecked cars and buildings over wide areas surrounding the heavily protected synagogues.

A police spokesman said the death toll had risen overnight to 22 people ? including Jews and Muslim passers-by. A total of 242 others were wounded in the attack on a Muslim nation closely allied with Israel and the United States.

The spokesman said a number of the wounded were still in hospital though many had been released. He said it was too early to give any details on the investigation as work was continuing. ?There?s still nothing certain,? he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom was due to visit the bomb sites and meet Turkish authorities later yesterday. Security sources said investigators from Israel?s Mossad security service were already helping with the probe.

An Israeli religious forensic team, wearing fluorescent vests, scoured the bomb sites overnight for body parts.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attacks, which dealt NATO member Turkey a painful reminder of its long history of home-grown political violence.

Officials said al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden?s international militant network, might have been involved in the explosions.

?I condemn this terror attack in the strongest terms. Whoever is behind it, no stone will remain unturned (in our investigation),? Erdogan told a news conference at Istanbul airport on his return from northern Cyprus late on Saturday.

?A platform of shared struggle against international terror has been established because of the point which global terror has now reached. I believe these events have an international dimension,? he said before visiting the wounded in one hospital.

An Israeli religious forensic team joined Turkish authorities at the scene of the blasts on Saturday evening. ?We are, unfortunately, used to terror in Israel and feel we can help here, in accordance with Jewish law,?the team?s spokesman told curious local journalists.

Psychiatrist Pinhas Dannon, from the Jewish Agency?s grief counseling unit, accompanied the Israeli team. ?We have our work cut out for us,? he said. ?As well as the dead there are some 200 wounded. That?s 200 families in need of care, Jews and non-Jews alike.?

<B>Local claim discounted</B>

Turkish officials dismissed a claim from a radical Turkish Islamist group that it was behind the attacks.

Islamist, Kurdish and leftist groups have in the past used violence in Turkey. More than 30,000 people have been killed in a Kurdish separatist insurgency in the southeast which dwindled in 1999 after the capture of the group?s leader.

?Turkish groups could not have done this,? Zaman newspaper quoted one security official as saying, a view echoed in most Turkish newspapers, which saw al Qaeda?s hand in the attacks.

A senior Israeli security source said the blasts seemed to have been the work of an al Qaeda affiliate, possibly seeking to target both arch-foe Israel and moderate Muslim Turkey.

Turkey has been preoccupied in recent months by plans to send troops to neighbouring Iraq ? a move which it abandoned this month because of strong opposition from Iraq?s U.S.-appointed Governing Council.

As a major tourist destination, Turkey is highly sensitive to incidents that tarnish its image abroad. The blasts may also sour recent optimism generated by hopes of European Union membership and an economic recovery from financial crises.

Local representatives of the 25,000-strong Jewish community said the blasts were an attack on the whole of Turkey.

Following are reactions from several world governments and organisations condemning the attacks of the synagogues:

UNITED STATES ?I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attacks in Istanbul, where Turkey?s diverse religious communities of Muslim, Jewish and Christian believers have flourished together for centuries?, President George W. Bush said in a statement.

EUROPEAN UNION

?The attacks close to the two synagogues are an unacceptable expression of intolerance and rejection that have to be eradicated?, Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, said in a statement. ?There is no Europe without tolerance, this episode is incompatible with our very idea of Europe?, European Commission President Roman Prodi said at a private visit to a Milan synagogue, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER

The attacks were ?the work of fanatics whose hatred for Jews and democracies is reminiscent of the Nazis of the 1930s?, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the U.S.-based Jewish rights group human, said in a statement. ?Turkey, a Moslem country, was chosen as the venue for these heinous criminal attacks because of Turkey?s democratic system, its alliance with the United States, its historic friendship with the Jewish people and its strong relations with Israel?, the Center said.

GERMANY

?I am horrified by the news of the terrible bomb attack in Istanbul that left so many people killed or injured?, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in a letter of condolence to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

In a statement Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said: ?The organisers and supporters of this inhumane and anti-Semitic crime have to be tracked down and brought to justice. The attack offers further proof that the international community must do all it can to fight international terrorism as well as anti-Semitism.?

ISRAEL

?What we expect from the Turkish government is what the Turkish government has always done ? to find the perpetrators and punish them correctly. I?m sure they?re working on that now?, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Ankara said.

FRANCE

?France vigorously condemns the odious double bomb attack?, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

BRITAIN

?Those responsible deserve nothing less than the contempt and condemnation of the entire international community. I was particularly appalled that these attacks were carried out against ordinary people engaged in peaceful worship?, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.

SPAIN </B>