Britain publicly identified Osama bin Laden for the first time Monday as the "prime suspect" responsible for the bloody terrorist attacks in the United States.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said it was clear from intelligence reports that the Saudi-born terrorist mastermind was the main suspect.
It is the first time Britain has publicly named him, although it has been widely hinted. US President George W. Bush, for his part, has already pointed the finger at bin Laden.
"It is now clear, not only from what has been said in the United States but from our own separate intelligence assessment, that Osama Bin Laden and his organization are plainly the prime suspect for this terrorist outrage," Straw told BBC radio.
Reiterating that Britain supported the United States, he said London was committed to going after bin Laden and his network.
"They do have to be stopped from further such outrages, which for certain would go on if they were not stopped," he added.
More than 5,000 people are listed as missing or dead after three hijacked planes were sent careering into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington in the September 11 attacks.
A fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
Among the dead are understood to be several hundred Britons, making it the worst attack against British citizens since World War II -- LONDON (AFP)
