'Madrid bombings signal new threat to Europe'

Many likened it to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, not only for the shock of the indiscriminate killings but because of a suspicion that it might have been the work of extremists linked to al-Qaeda.

Even if, as the Spanish government believes, the bombings were the work of the Basque separatist group ETA, it showed how extremists were learning from each other, they argued.

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"What happened in Spain was the al-Qaedisation of terrorism in Europe," the German daily Die Welt said.

It signalled "the implementation of a tactic invented by Islamists, which does not pursue a political goal such as the overthrow of government but finds its value in causing the most pain possible in the worst chaos."

Al-Qaeda, the group headed by Osama bin Laden blamed for the 2001 suicide attacks in the United States that killed more than 3,000 people, "deserves at least to be described as the moral co-author of these crimes," commented the French daily Liberation.

According to The Times of London, the seeming intention of the bombers to cause large-scale civilian casualties marked a change in the terrorism tactics witnessed inside Europe.

"Indeed, their very brutality seems to many characteristic of the attacks carried out by al-Qaeda and its sympathisers," it said in an editorial.

Europe was now facing "something wider: international understanding among extremists, who copy each others' methods, supply each other with arms and co-ordinate attacks on their common enemies."

Belgium's Le Soir agreed. "Basque terrorism or Islamic terrorism, Europe now has proof that it is also sheltering bin Ladens or that it has become their target," it said in an editorial.

Austria's Die Presse said Europe now had to be on increased guard.