Pakistan blames UK for London bombings - madrassas concerned about negative Jihad PR

Mr Akram, right, meets UN General Secretary Kofi Annan

Munir Akram, Islamabad's ambassador to the United Nations, spoke after reports linking his country to the killers.

Three are said to be of Pakistani decent and one is reported to have visited a religious school in Pakistan.

Mr Akram told the BBC that Britain had to look at its own problems to understand the root causes of terror.

He told The World This Weekend that a particular concern was integrating Muslims into mainstream UK life.

"You have to look at British society - what you are doing to the Muslim community and why the Muslim community is not integrating into British society,... and not try to externalise the problems Britain faces with regard to race and religious relations."

'Home-grown bombers'

Mr Akram told BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall he did not deny Pakistan had its own problems with militants which it was trying to tackle.

"We have suffered from terrorism more than anybody else. Pakistan is doing all it can."

But he believes Britain is now a "breeding ground for terrorists too", has its own radical preachers and now "home-grown suicide bombers".

Mr Akram rejected reports that Shehzad Tanweer had been turned into a terrorist during a visit earlier this year to an Islamic religious school - or madrassa - in Lahore.

Your policies in the Middle East, your policies in the Islamic world, that is the problem with your society... and that is where the problem lies as far as this incident is concerned Munir Akram, Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations

He said if the 22-year-old from Leeds - who killed seven people on a Circle Line train between Aldgate and Liverpool Street - or any of his accomplices had visited, they had not been there long enough to be turned.

"Brainwashing is a long process. You cannot brainwash somebody instantly unless he is inclined to be brainwashed."

Rather, it was the years spent in Britain that transformed them into the UK's first suicide bombers, he said.

"They were born in Britain, bred there, lived there, worked there, were - by all accounts - British lads.

"What motivated British lads to do this? It is not because their blood was from Pakistan.

"Whatever angst they had was a result of living in Britain."

we have to take this on politically in arguing the case for the values we uphold around the world International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn

Judging the bombers on their "racial origins" was a "recipe for promoting racism and hatred", Mr Akram told BBC News.

"It is important not to pin blame on somebody else when the problem lies internally.

"Your policies in the Middle East, your policies in the Islamic world, that is the problem with your society... and that is where the problem lies as far as this incident is concerned."

"It would be a grave mistake to point fingers at Pakistan or anybody else outside your country."

The International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, told BBC News: "It is not about ethnicity, it is about ideology.

"This is an international problem, and there is a responsibility on all of us - wherever it is that we happen to live - to take on the ideology.

Militant organisation

"Some people... seem to believe that because they have feelings about the state of the world it is all right to strap bombs to your back and travel to London and blow up innocent commuters on their way to work.

"It is not acceptable, we have to be very clear about it and we have to take this on politically in arguing the case for the values we uphold around the world."

Pakistan authorities say they are placing madrassas under closer scrutiny after the London attacks to ensure they do not preach jihad or indoctrinate young minds.

The madrassa linked to Shehzad Tanweer, allegedly run by a banned militant organisation, has denied he ever visited.