4:47pm UK, Friday July 22, 2005

Tony Blair has appealed for calm after the latest bomb attacks on London.

The Prime Minister admitted the attacks were "serious", but urged people to get on with their business as normal.

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Mr Blair at news conference

He said: "We know why these things are done, they are meant to scare people... fortunately in this instance there appear to be no casualties.

He said he believed people would not be intimidated by the terrorists.

"I think that everyone is canny enough to know what these people are trying to do, whoever is responsible for this latest incident, and that is to intimidate people and to scare them and to frighten them to stop them going about their normal business," he said.

"It is important that we respond by keeping to our normal lives and doing what we want to do because to do otherwise is in a sense to give them the very thing they are looking for.

"It doesn't change us. It is not going to change what we do. To react in any other way is to engage in the game they want us to engage in."

Mr Blair said it was too early to speculate on who was responsible for the attacks but added: "I think that will become apparent, I hope, reasonably quickly."

He again denied the London attacks were a result of the Iraq war, saying the "roots of this are deep" and similar terror attacks went back over 10 years.

He said he hoped the London transport system would soon be up and running.