World condemns Bali bombings

Governments in Europe and across the globe condemned the suicide bombings that killed 26 people late Saturday, including an Australian, a Japanese man and at least 12 Indonesians. The wounded included Australians, Americans, Koreans, Japanese and Britons.

"We stand by Indonesia at this very difficult time," British prime minister Tony Blair said. "I offer our full support to the people of Bali as they recover from another atrocity so soon after the 2002 attack."

The blasts came almost three years after the October 12, 2002 bomb attacks on two nightclubs in Bali that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. One Briton was seriously injured and another sustained minor wounds in the latest attacks, a Foreign Office spokesman in London said.

Blair said Britons had been moved by the support of Indonesians and their government after the July 7 bomb attacks on three subway trains and a bus in London, which killed 52 commuters. "The British government stands ready to help in any way we can," the prime minister added.

Russian president Vladimir Putin sent a message of condolence to his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, urging tougher action against terrorism. Russia has tried to cast its six-year old war in Chechnya as part of the global fight against terror and pointed at alleged links between the Chechen rebels and the al Qaeda.

"The latest explosions have become another cruel confirmation of the fact that international terrorism is a threat to the world community, which must be even more uncompromising and firm in taking measures to uproot it," Putin wrote, according to the Russian presidential press service. French president Jacques Chirac also said his country condemned the bombings "with the greatest firmness" and offered his "solidarity through this ordeal."

The foreign ministries of Germany, Italy and Sweden also denounced the attacks, as did China. "We strongly condemn this terrorist act," Beijing’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said in a statement on the ministry’s Web site.

Meanwhile US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said her country "stands with the people and government of Indonesia as they work to bring to justice those responsible for these acts of terrorism."

No one claimed responsibility for Saturday’s blasts but suspicion fell on the al Qaeda linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, which officials say was also behind the 2002 bombings.

Indonesian police said the masterminds are suspected to be Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top. The two men fled to Indonesia after a Malaysian crackdown on suspected Islamic militants following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US. They have been on the run since then.

"These people may be Malaysian by citizenship but they are not with us," Malaysian foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar told The Associated Press. "If they were in Malaysia we could have taken some action," he said.

"I hope they (Indonesians) are successful in investigating and catching these two men," Syed Hamid said. "If these people are responsible, everyone would like to see them apprehended. The Indonesian government has been chasing them. It is a question of apprehending them."

The Thai government "strongly condemns this heinous and inhumane act of terrorism," prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra wrote in a letter to the Indonesian president.

"As a close neighbour and a fellow member of ASEAN, Thailand reaffirms our solidarity with Indonesia in our common goal to combat terrorism." Australian prime minister John Howard also condemned the bombings as "an indiscriminate murderous attack." One 16-year-old Australian was killed in the blast and two others were grievously hurt.

Howard said his government will provide medical evacuation to Australia or Singapore for those injured in the blasts, "irrespective of their nationality."

Australia was prepared to send investigative and police support, he said.

Eighty-eight Australians died in the 2002 Bali bombings.

Japan’s government, which confirmed the death of a 51-year-old Japanese vacationer in Bali, condemned the attacks as "abominable," while UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called it a "cowardly attack." The Philippines, Singapore and New Zealand also expressed their condolences for the victims of the suicide blasts.