Germany for further tightening of air cargo security

These incidents "must be the occasion to implement more stringent controls" of air freight within the EU and to intensify the coordination of counter-terrorism measures between the EU and the United States as well with other countries around the world to prevent future terrorist attacks, Ms Merkel said in a newspaper interview.

As a first step, Germany will propose the setting up of a working group at next week’s meting of the EU interior ministers to come up with concrete recommendations by the end of December, she said.

Her comments came as European leaders are increasingly being targeted by a series parcel bombs, reportedly dispatched from Greece. A parcel bomb addressed to the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi exploded on Wednesday at the Bologna airport.

The Greek police on Monday intercepted a similar device addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and arrested two persons carrying them. Intelligence officials in Europe fear that more packages containing explosives from Greece may be on their way to the European capitals.

German interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Wednesday sent a team of security experts to investigate the origin of the parcel bomb, which was personally addressed to Merkel and delivered at her office by a United Parcel Service (UPS) courier.

The package was sent by air mail from Athens two days ago disguised as books. Security officials detected it during a routine inspection of mail after they became suspicious of the name of the sender given as the Greek Economics Ministry in Athens.

It was deactivated by bomb disposal specialists using a water cannon.  Mr.de Maiziere said the parcel bomb to Ms Merkel carried  the hallmarks of a Greek left extremist organisation, which was behind a spate of parcel bomb attacks against foreign diplomatic missions in Athens.

It was "very similar" to the parcel bomb exploded at the Swiss embassy in Athens on Tuesday, he said. Another parcel bomb exploded at the Russian embassy in the Greek capital on Tuesday while similar packages sent to the diplomatic missions of Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Bulgaria and Chile were intercepted by the Greek authorities.

On Monday, a parcel bomb addressed to the Mexican embassy exploded at the offices of a courier company, injuring an employee. Altogether, 13 parcel bombs have been found so far, according to the Greek authorities.

Mr.de Maiziere ruled out the possibility that the package sent to Ms Merkel may be linked to  the two air freight packages from Yemen containing powerful plastic explosives, which were intercepted in Britain and in Dubai on Friday.

"It has nothing to do with the two packets from Yemen," which were addressed to two synagogues in Chicago, he said. The minister ordered all postal departments of the federal and state governments to review their security situation and to take additional measures to improve it, if necessary.

He also called upon all government offices to be very vigilant in handling their incoming mail, especially unfamiliar packages from Greece. Chancellor Merkel lobbed the cooperation between various security services as "excellent" and said they prevented major disasters.