Belgium had proposed to fellow European Union members setting up a dedicated centre to share and analyse intelligence, following train bombings in Madrid

The government's website said Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt had asked other European leaders to consider an intelligence equivalent to police cooperation body Europol at an EU summit in Brussels on March 26. The Spanish government sees Basque separatists as chief suspects in Thursday's Madrid attacks, 10 blasts that tore through trains during the morning rush hour killing 200 people. However, the scale of the attack has spawned speculation Islamic militants were responsible. If this were so, it might signal a new focus by the al Qaeda group on western Europe. Separately, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Saturday rivalry between European security forces was hobbling attempts at international cooperation. Britain, France and Germany house some of the world's strongest intelligence services. None of them, however, comes close to matching the US Central Intelligence Agency for manpower or resources.