Girls and boys being sexualised at early age, report warns

By Caroline Gammell Published: 8:00AM GMT 20 Feb 2010

Players of Miss Bimbo aim to marry a billionaire, and can keep their weight down with diet pills

Girls are feeling under pressure to please boys while boys believe they must sleep with several girls to fit in.

The study was written by clinical psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos for the Home Office.

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She said: "Little boys are always told arent you clever, arent you strong. Little girls are told arent you pretty? even in 2010.

"They are adhering to what society expects and internalising behaviours."

Dr Papadopoulos cited the example of the computer game Miss Bimbo, where the aim of the game is to accumulate boob jobs and marry a billionaire.

Her comments came as David Cameron said he tried to stop his six-year-old daughter Nancy from listening to Lily Allen songs because of the sexual content of some of her lyrics.

The report, due out later this month, will suggest imposing age restrictions on lads magazine such as Zoo and Nuts and introducing a symbol to signify when a image in a magazine has been airbrushed.

Dr Papadopoulos told the Times Educational Supplement: "Its a drip-drip effect. Look at porn stars and look at how the average girls looks now.

"We are hypersexualising girls, telling them their desirability relies on being desired.

"They want to please at any cost.

"And we are hypermasculinising boys. Many feel they cant live up to the porn ideal, sleeping with lots of women."

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We know that many parents are concerned about the pressures that their teenage and even pre-teen daughters are under to appear sexually available at a younger and younger age, and about the negative impact this may be having on boys too."

Root vegetable recipes: Soupe savoyarde

By Diana Henry Published: 9:55AM GMT 19 Feb 2010

Soupe savoyarde Photo: YUKI SUGIURA

Serves six to eight

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I prefer it made with a high proportion of carrots and parsnips, both for colour and sweetness (some versions major on leeks, others include celeriac). Traditionally you put the toast and cheese in the bottom of the bowl so that it melts under the soup, but you also find it with the bread and cheese on top, as with French onion soup. However you serve it, its great for the ski slopes, or just for keeping out the cold.

50-75g (1oz-2oz) butter

1 large leek or 2 medium, cut into rounds and washed

350g (12oz) carrots,

scraped and chopped

250g (9oz) parsnips,

scraped and chopped

100g (3oz) potato, peeled and cut into chunks

1 litre (1 pint 15fl oz) well-flavoured chicken stock

250ml (9fl oz) full-fat milk

6 slices country bread

150g (5oz) grated beaufort or gruyère cheese

Melt the butter in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the vegetables, plus some salt and pepper. Turn the veg round in the butter, making sure it is well coated in fat. Add a good splash of water, cover the pan and set over a low heat. Sweat the vegetables, adding a splash of water every so often, for 35 minutes. This softens them and brings out the sweetness. Add the stock and more seasoning and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes the vegetables should be completely soft. Leave to cool before pureing (putting hot soup in a blender is very dangerous), then pour into a clean saucepan. Heat and add milk according to the flavour and thickness (you may want to add more, or a little water). Adjust the seasoning this is crucial.

Lightly toast the bread . Warm the soup until it is piping hot then ladle into bowls that can go under the grill. Float the toast on top and pile on the cheese. Put under a hot grill (set the bowls in a large roasting-tin to transport them) and cook until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Serve immediately.

Rentokil profits surge on cost cuts

By Rachel Cooper, City Reporter Published: 8:57PM GMT 19 Feb 2010

Rentokil Initial

Despite a 185pc rise in full-year pre-tax profits for the year to £65m from £22.8m, Alan Brown, the chief executive brought in revive Rentokil"s fortunes in April 2008, said there would be no shareholder payout to preserve its balance sheet.

"By and large I think our shareholders would be happy to forego a dividend, certainly for another 12 months or so," he said.

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Rentokil saved £82m last year after Mr Brown implemented a cost-focused five-year turnaround plan, which included reducing expenditure by £54m in its troubled City Link parcel delivery arm.

But on Friday, there was good news for City Link as it returned to profit for the first time in two years. Mr Brown said the reversal in fortunes had been achieved by focusing on "operational excellence and engaging front line staff".

He has earmarked another £75m in cost savings, but said the group was also looking to boost its textiles and wash-room division by making acquisitions abroad.

Glasgow 7 Cardiff 30: match report

By Alasdair Reid Published: 10:23PM GMT 19 Feb 2010

In action: Glasgow"s Max Evans in action during the Magners League match at Firhill Photo: PA

Glasgow came into this match at Firhill as Magners League leaders, but their understrength side delivered a performance that did not even begin to hint at that status.

Their supporters may have been baying for the blood of referee Dudley Phillips, who took a distinctly laissez-faire attitude to Cardiffs exploration of the offside line, but Glasgows own error-strewn display was at the root of their defeat.

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Cardiffs win was their first Magners League victory away from home this season, while the seven points Glasgow took from a late Max Evans try and Colin Gregor conversion was their lowest total of the current campaign. Any higher number would have been more than they deserved for a feeble display in which they failed to put together a single credible attack after the first 20 minutes.

Even then, in a game that should have meant a lot to some of their more peripheral players, Glasgow were strangely slow to get into their stride, being beaten to the loose ball on a number of occasions in the first quarter.

As a result, the Blues moved into an early 6-0 lead with two Ben Blair penalties, an advantage that was a tribute more to their sharpness than any domination of territory and possession.

In fairness, Glasgow did have chances of their own, but fly-half Ruaridh Jackson sent three penalty efforts wide of the posts in that first 20 minutes. The first was an optimistic strike from near halfway, but the second and third attempts were well within his range.

Jackson may have been hampered by a collision with flanker Maama Molitika inside the first few minutes, when he sustained a thigh injury that required heavy strapping. However, with Dan Parks rested, Glasgow had no other kicker available, so Jackson had no option but to carry on.

Daniel van der Merwe, Glasgows Canada international winger, was probably the most threatening attacker in the Scots backline, denuded as it was by a number of interational call-offs. Van der Merwe made a couple of threatening breaks down the left side, but his colleagues were too slow to react and the moves fizzled out.

The Blues brought a poor away record into the game, but they looked keen to change that reputation with real thrust in their attacks, and they moved further ahead in the 34th minute when Blair kicked his third penalty a passage that was doubly damaging for Glasgow as they lost winger Hefin OHare to the sin bin for the offside offence that brought the award.

Jacksons woes continued as he delivered a succession of poorly judged kicks, a problem that meant Glasgow never really achieved the field position or the momentum to start clawing back Cardiffs lead.

Glasgows problems were not helped by a referee who gave them few favours, but the official could hardly be blamed for the slapdash defending that led to Cardiffs try a minute into the second half. The Blues had it all too easy as they gnawed off territory through the phases, eventually winning the position from which scrum-half Gareth Cooper nipped over the line for the score.

Blairs conversion put Cardiff 16-0 in front a mountain of a challenge to Glasgow given the way they were playing. The Scots scrum gave them a decent platform, but they struggled at the lineouts following the early departure of hooker Dougie Hall.

The rot continued for Glasgow as they conceded a second try, to Blues centre Casey Laulala in the 55th minute, then all but laid on a welcoming committee for winger Tom James as he took advantage of some execrable tackling to claim the third touchdown five minutes later.

Blair converted both on a night when the salt just kept pouring into the Glasgow wounds. Evanss 80th minute try did not take the sting out of that.

Match details

Glasgow: B Stortoni (P Murchie, 62; H OHare, M Evans, P Horne (A Dunbar, 59), DTH van der Merwe; R Jackson (C Gregor, 55), M McMillan (captain); J Welsh (K Tkachuk, 62), D Hall (F Thomson, 6), M Low, T Barker, R Gray, J Eddie, C Fusaro (P Burke, 67), R Vernon (D Turner, 53). T: Evans C: Gregor

Cardiff Blues: B Blair (S Norton-Knight, 64); T James, C Laulala, T Shanklin (D Hewitt, 74), C Czekaj; C Sweeney, G Cooper (D Allinson, 71); T Filise, T Thomas, G Powell (S Andrews, 67), D Jones, P Tito (captain; S Morgan, 59), M Molitika (A Pretorious, 40), B White, X Rush. T: Cooper, Laulala, James C: Blair (3) P: Blair (3)

Referee: D Phillips (Ireland)

North America 2010: accommodation guide

By Fred Mawer Published: 12:01PM GMT 18 Feb 2010

Camping in a US National Park is a good budget option Photo: CORBIS

Staying there

Hotels: Online agents, such as www.quikbook.com, www.1800usahotels.com and www.hotels.com, are worth consulting: they often have best available rates, and highlight hotels in a particular city offering best deals.

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B&Bs and inns: Useful sources are www.betterbedandbreakfasts.com, www.bbonline.com, www.inntravels.com, www.bbcanada.com. In some cities, agencies arrange b & b in private homes and unhosted stays in apartments look at www.affordablenewyorkcity.com, www.boston-bnbagency.com.

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Home rentals: Best starting points are websites on which owners advertise for direct bookings www.holiday-rentals.co.uk lists more than 69,000 properties in the US and more than 1,500 in Canada. Also try www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.ownersdirect.co.uk, www.canadavacationrentals.ca.

Campsites: For those in US national parks, see www.nps.gov, with online reservations, where possible, on www.recreation.gov; for camping in Canadian parks, go to www.pccamping.ca. Stays at some sites need booking many months ahead.

Package holiday operators

Package holidays to the USA and Canada can work out much better value than fixing up the flights, accommodation, car hire and so forth separately. A simple example: last month, Virgins cheapest flights to Las Vegas cost £459 return but a Virgin Holidays package with the Virgin flights plus three nights accommodation in a three-star hotel on the Strip was on sale for just £29.50 more than this.

Many operators offer a vast choice of holiday options in North America from city breaks and stay-put resort stays in Florida, California and Las Vegas, to fly-drive tours of the Western US and New England, rail journeys in Canada, and theme-park tickets and excursions as add ons. Their brochures and websites are good sources for ideas, and particularly for what fly-drive tours and multi-centre holidays are most feasible. Flexibility in the duration and scope of trips is a key selling point with most operators.

Bear in mind that many companies offer very similar portfolios of holidays, so it can really pay to shop around for the best rates.

Major operators

Our selection

Kuoni (01306 747008; www.kuoni.co.uk) The website has fantastically useful calendar price charts showing how much a package at a particular hotel varies day by day; more affordable hotels are on offer this year.

Trailfinders (0845 050 5890; www.trailfinders.com) A reputation for good service, and likely to offer some of the best prices. The website isnt great, so get hold of its USA & Canada brochure. More self-catering this year, in California, New England, South Carolina.

Virgin Holidays (0844 573 2707; www.virginholidays.co.uk) Often keen prices (discounts promised for online bookings), massive choices of accommodation in the cities Virgin flies to (eg 55 hotels in New York), and the uplifting v-room lounge at Gatwick for Virgin Holidays customers (it costs extra). Details of its enlarged Canada programme are on the website only. See www.vhiphotels.co.uk for trendy US properties.

Other options

British Airways (0844 493 0759; www.ba.com/holidays) Promises accommodation and/or car hire booked together with BA flights on ba.com will be cheaper than booked separately.

Hayes & Jarvis (0871 664 0246; www.hayesandjarvis.com) More appealing boutique/ heritage hotels eg the W Washington DC and Le Nelligan in old Montreal plus apartments in New York and LA are new.

Inghams (020 8780 4454; www.inghams.co.uk) Its Lakes & Mountains programme covers Canadian mountain resorts.

Premier Holidays (0844 493 7531; www.premierholidays.co.uk) West coast USA and Vegas, often combined, are its best sellers.

Thomas Cook (0844 412 5970; www.thomascook.com) Las Vegas holidays, using Thomas Cook Airlines ex-Manchester charters. Thomas Cook Signature (0844 871 6650; www.tcsignature.com) is a leading Canada player, with a dedicated brochure to the country (there are more non-driving packages this year); also USA and Florida brochures.

Thomson Tailormade (0871 664 0273; www.thomsontailormade.co.uk) Much expanded America & Canada brochure, with 72 hotels added Note that the long-haul flight specialists listed under Getting There on p00 also offer full tailor-made packages to North America.

Sister companies Eurocamp (0844 406 0552; www.eurocamp.co.uk) and Keycamp (0844 406 0319; www.keycamp.co.uk) offer lodge and mobile home stays in 11 campsites in Florida, the Carolinas and New England, plus motorhome holidays.

Luxury specialists

Our selection

North America Travel Service (0113 243 0000; www.northamericatravelservice.co.uk) Good knowledge, and a big portfolio of the best US and Canada hotels both for fly-drives, and stay-put city or resort stays.

Other options

Well-regarded, worldwide luxury tour operators featuring a wide choice of top North American hotels include Carrier (0161 491 7640; www.carrier.co.uk), Elegant Resorts (01244 897991; www.elegantresorts.co.uk), ITC Classics (01244 355550; www.itcclassics.co.uk) and Seasons in Style (01244 202002; www.seasonsinstyle.com).

Florida

In Orlando, you need to decide whether to stay in a hotel or self-cater. If a hotel, then one or the fun, themed, convenient ones in Disney World and Universal Orlando, or one of the numerous, cheaper options away from the theme parks? If self-catering, in a home with private pool, or in an apartment or "town house" in a complex with a shared pool? Another big decision is whether to base yourself for the duration in Orlando, or spend time recuperating by the beach after the theme parks (much more preferable).

Operators offer plenty of self-catering on the Gulf coast, as well as hotels. Research Orlando holidays thoroughly. The cost of package and DIY trips can vary enormously as can the price of theme-park tickets between ticket agents, tour operators and the parks themselves.

Our selection

Virgin Holidays (0844 557 3875; www.virginholidays.co.uk) The biggest Florida programme of any UK operator, in terms of holidaymakers handled and accommodation offered theres a massive selection of Orlando hotels and self-catering, and lots of hotels on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, and in Miami and the Keys. Other selling points: the option to check in for your return flight at Downtown Disney to reduce airport hassle; Orlando Kids Eat Free cards for all children under 12; and for those buying Universal Orlando park tickets with their package, early entry to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter when it opens.

Florida Vacations (01582 469661; www.vacationsgroup.co.uk) Long-established self-catering specialist: good for upmarket, named villas in Orlando and on the Gulf Coast, as well as cheaper, generic properties.

Complete Orlando (0800 294 8844; www.completeorlando.co.uk) Excellent local knowledge, a sophisticated, interactive website with various planning features, and you can pick and mix what elements you want to book.

Other options

Other operators with sizeable Florida programmes based around scheduled flights include: Bon Voyage (0800 316 0194; www.bon-voyage.co.uk) Good beach options; British Airways (0844 493 0759; www.ba.com/florida); Funway Holidays (0844 557 0770; www.funwayholidays.co.uk); Jetsave (0871 664 0294; www.jetsave.com) Orlando Kids Eat Free cards supplied with packages; Kuoni (as above) Five per cent off online bookings; Ocean Florida (0800 804 8430; www.ocean-florida.co.uk); Travel City Direct (0844 557 6969; www.travelcitydirect.com) Owned by Virgin Holidays budget-sensitive packages.

Companies using charter flights for Florida packages: First Choice (0844 871 1604; www.firstchoice.co.uk) and sister company Thomson (0871 231 4691; www.thomson.co.uk), Thomas Cook (0844 412 5970; www.thomascook.com) and Monarch Holidays (0871 423 8568; www.monarchholidays.co.uk).

Other self-catering specialists: Florida Options (0845 345 1212; www.floridavillaoptions.com) and James Villa Holidays (0800 074 0122; www.jamesvillas.co.uk).

Theme-park ticket agents: Attraction Tickets Direct (0800 975 0002; www.attraction-tickets-direct.co.uk) and Theme Park Tickets Direct (0844 579 3060; www.themeparkticketsdirect.com).

North America specialists

Some of the following companies focus exclusively on the US, while others sell Canada too.

Our selection

America As You Like It (020 8742 8299; www.americaasyoulikeit.com) Sells a broader range of accommodation than most companies, including historic inns (more have been added in the Deep South), and city apartments. Also offering packages to the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky in September/October.

Bon Voyage (0800 316 0194; www.bon-voyage.co.uk) One of the most experienced North America specialists. New this year is bicycle tours between New England inns, with luggage transported for you. www.goamerica.co.uk is its online booking arm.

Complete North America (0845 263 7100; www.completenorthamerica.com) Thoughtfully put together driving tours, described in detail on the website free one-way drop-offs offered for the Route 66 tour (saving over £300).

North American Highways (01902 851138; www.nahighways.co.uk) Scenic, sensibly paced and flexible driving tours using individual accommodation (eg b&bs, inns, lodges). New for 2010 are tours of the north and south of New Mexico, and a circular Colorado Rockies itinerary flying in/out of Denver.

Alaska is a speciality, for small-ship cruises as well as driving tours.

The Vacations Group (01582 469777; www.vacationsgroup.co.uk) Quality inns, hotels and self-catering in four regions: California, New England (has expanded into the adjoining states of New York and Pennsylvania), Florida, and the Carolinas and southern states, where it claims to be the only UK operator offering a dedicated brochure.

Other options

Continental Airlines Vacations (0844 557 1010; www.covacations.co.uk) Packages using Continental flights; free stopovers often possible in New York on twin-centre breaks.

Funway Holidays (0844 557 0770; www.funwayholidays.co.uk) The US specialist has introduced a multifaceted Canada programme this year.

Inntravel (01653 617000; www.inntravel.co.uk) Independent touring holidays using hand-picked inns in New England, Nova Scotia and Qubec province.

United Vacations (0844 499 2229; www.unitedvacations.co.uk) Holidays with United Airlines flights; good for keenly priced, multi-centre air tours, eg San Francisco, Hawaii, Chicago.

Other specialists that have websites packed with ideas include: AmeriCan and Worldwide Travel (01892 779900; www.awwt.co.uk), American Sky (0870 904 0920; www.americansky.co.uk), Just America (0844 880 6802; www.justamerica.co.uk) and Key to America (0113 398 3013; www.keytoamerica.com).

Canada specialists

The following companies can generally tailor-make the full range of Canadian holidays including rail journeys, driving tours, wildlife trips, city breaks and combinations of these. Most also sell holidays to Alaska.

Our selection

Canadian Affair (020 7616 9999; www.canadianaffair.com) The largest UK tour operator to Canada. Both its charter flights and holidays are often priced very competitively the independent rail tours look particularly good value, and there are lots of free one-way drop offs on car rentals.

Connections (0800 988 5864; www.cnww.co.uk) Part of Titan Travel, a company highly rated by Telegraph readers, with home-to-airport transfers included its package prices for England and Wales residents. See its brochure for an enormous selection of independent touring, multi-centre and wildlife-oriented Canadian holidays; half of all bookings include an Alaska cruise. Consider sister operation Tailor Made Travel (0845 456 8001; www.tailor-made.co.uk) for a bespoke, luxury Canadian holiday.

Frontier Travel (0208 776 8709; www.frontier-canada.co.uk) Small specialist with twenty years experience of selling Canada is likely to know about, and be able to put together, just about anything. Promoting motorhome holidays this year see www.frontier-motorhomes.co.uk for suggested routes and FAQs.

Audley Travel (01993 838700; www.audleytravel.com) Well constructed and described self-drive itineraries, some of lesser-visited areas such as Newfoundland, where you could stay in a lighthouse.

Other options

Companies offering upmarket, tailor-made Canadian holidays include: Bales Worldwide (0845 057 1819; www.balesworldwide.com); Bridge & Wickers (020 7483 6555; www.bridgeandwickers.co.uk) The Fairmont Pacific Rim on Vancouvers waterfront, and Sparkling Hill, a very glitzy "wellness" resort in British Columbia, are featured hotels opening this year; Distinctive Americas (01844 347005; www.distinctiveamericas.com) Tours often with a wildlife emphasis; and Prestige Holidays (01502 567222; www.prestigeholidays.co.uk) New Canada programme of self-drive itineraries, city breaks and wildlife viewing, including from luxury lodges reached by floatplane.

Other Canadian specialists offering a more mainstream choice of holidays include: 1st Class Holidays (0161 877 0432; www.1stclassholidays.com); Canada 4U (01502 565648; www.canada4u.co.uk); Canadian Sky (0870 904 0930; www.canadiansky.co.uk); Experience Holidays (01323 446550; www.experienceholidays.co.uk), Holidays 2 Canada (0800 988 4611; www.holidays2canada.co.uk), Travelpack (0844 493 0402; www.travelpack.com).

Stallions need to be fed their oats not brand messages

By Celia Walden Published: 6:42AM GMT 19 Feb 2010

Comments 29 | Comment on this article

Tiger Woods gets a kiss from his wife Elin after losing his match at the Presidents Cup golf tournament, 2005 Photo: Reuters

As a young reporter, I spent a summer babysitting George Best. Occasionally, when George became maudlin (which, to his credit, didn"t happen often), he would lament the fact that, as a teenage prodigy, nobody had warned him of the pitfalls of fame.

Had George been micromanaged in the way that sportsmen are now, I doubt his fate would have been very different: excess was in his soul. But when I see Tiger Woods, and the cabaret of apology he is being forced to make, Ashley Cole enticing women with pictures of himself wearing what appear to be a large pair of women"s bloomers and John Terry impregnating his best friend"s girl, I can"t help but think that over-management isn"t the answer.

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Be it the sportsmen"s fathers (in Woods"s case) or their agents, urging them to marry young and play the family card, all the while knowing (because of course they know) that their charge"s real desires lie elsewhere, the outcome is likely to be a frenzy of entanglements with Page 3 girls and nightclub hostesses. Sportsmen aren"t members of the Royal family; I don"t need Woods to be paired off with a docile and past-free young blonde to take him seriously as a golfer, just as I don"t need Cole or Terry to be palatable human beings, playing at happy families in order to cement ""the brand"". And if I don"t, why should the sponsors?

A simple solution would be to ban all professional sportsmen from getting married before the age of 35. These are stallions we"re talking about, not ordinary men, and while promiscuity has never been proved to harm a sportsman"s performance on the pitch, subterfuge, and everything bound up in that, just might.

* Shall I put that in a bag for you?" smiles the lady at Paperchase, brandishing my card. This keeps happening, and every time it does, I feel my hands curling into fists in my pockets. "Yes please," I smile, looking over my shoulder to check that I am, indeed, alone in the shop, and biting back the question: "But why for me? I don"t see anyone else standing at the counter with a Far Side birthday card."

This new, superfluous linguistic flourish seems to accompany an increasing number of daily transactions: "Shall I ring that up/wrap that up/get that down/order that in for you?" It"s supposed to make me feel loved, of course, unique, in a world of drones and automata.

What the lady is really saying when she offers to slip my Larson sketch into a pretty pochette through the stationery apparatchiks who doubtlessly hold compulsory away days to preach the benefits of bespoke courtesies in our loveless global economy is that I matter to her. The bag is being offered to me, specifically, because Paperchase cares about my needs.

It is the jabbing finger of the TV evangelist, the overfamiliar waiter who seats himself at your table to inquire: "How we"re feeling?" Soon, no transaction will remain uncluttered with market-spiel, because now cue the gravelly film-promo voice it"s personal.

* Amid the fallout following Gordon Brown"s television interview last Sunday, something seems to have been overlooked, namely the peculiar state of Peter Mandelson"s head. When Mandy, with his trademark other-worldly sheen popped up (like women, the Business Secretary doesn"t so much perspire as glow) I was struck, as I have been of late, by how extraordinarily refreshed he looked. As the Simon Cowell of the political world, it"s not beyond the realms of possibility that Lord Mandelson, like Cowell, sees Botox as "no more unusual than brushing your teeth". Or perhaps it"s just the Curious Case of Peter Mandelson, the only man to age backwards.

Dubai Hamas murder: fresh questions over what Foreign Office knew

By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter Published: 5:22PM GMT 19 Feb 2010

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai on Jan 20. Photo: REUTERS

Investigators first announced they had identified several "European passport holders" as suspects on Jan 29 nine days after Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room.

The alleged involvement of European passports was reported by the BBC on that date, and reports that some of the passports were British began circulating in the Gulf days later.

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Yet the Foreign Office has maintained that it had no idea of any British link until Feb 15.

"The Dubai authorities told us about the role of British passports on 15 February, several hours before their press conference. We told them the following day that the passports used were fraudulent," said a spokesman.

"The head of the Dubai police has also made clear that Embassies were not contacted until shortly before the identity of the suspects was revealed."

The Irish authorities have said they first began looking into reports of Irish passports being used on Feb 5, and were in "daily contact" with their counterparts in Dubai from then on.

William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, suggested that ministers, civil servants or members of the security services should be called before parliaments Intelligence and Security Committee to explain what they knew, and when.

He said: "We will be looking for ways to raise this in parliament next week and we would expect that the ISC would want to look into this matter."

Police in Dubai have said they are "99 per cent certain" that the Israeli intelligence service Mossad was behind the murder.

The Foreign Office has denied outright a report suggesting that before the murder Mossad told MI6 that an "overseas operation" was going to be carried out using fake British passports.

Meanwhile Paul Keeley, one of the six Britons whose identities were stolen by the alleged assassins, announced his intention to sue the government of Israel, where he has lived for the past 15 years.

He said: "What I"ve been going through over the past two days has been a terrible nightmare. How did they steal the information from my passport just like that? I"m going to sue them. They have destroyed my reputation and I"m afraid for my life."

But Britains complaints about the abuse of passports received short shrift in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, which said Mr Mabhouh "deserved to be assassinated by Israel".

A leading article added: "The pigheaded refusal to acknowledge that sometimes the end justifies the means reflects Europe"s moral impoverishment."