Dubai, July 2 (Reuters): Muslim militants claiming links to al Qaida vowed new attacks on Europe once a “truce” offered by Osama bin Laden expires in two weeks, newspapers said today.

Governments and analysts played down the threat, noting the group in question had made unfounded claims before; French President Jacques Chirac said he took any such report seriously but that little could be done to improve already tight security.

“To the European people... you only have a few more days to accept bin Laden’s truce or you will only have yourselves to blame,” read the purported statement by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, referring to bin Laden’s three-month “truce offer” — effectively an ultimatum — which ends in mid-July.

“The race now is between you, time and European governments which have refused to stop their attacks against Muslims.

“So do not blame us for what will happen and we apologise to you in advance if you are among those killed.”

Al Qaida leader bin Laden, in an audiotape on April 15, gave European states three months to pull troops out of Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries or face new attacks like the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people on March 11.

European security sources viewed that offer as a propaganda ploy to help justify future attacks. But a senior intelligence official said this week there was no indication of plans for any attack immediately after the ultimatum expires.

Excerpts of the Abu Hafs statement were published by two London-based Arabic newspapers, Asharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat. Al-Hayat said the letter arrived by e-mail dated July 1. It is not clear how close the Abu Hafs group is to bin Laden himself.

“Muslims in the West should depart to Muslim states if they can,” the group said.“Those who cannot should take precautions and live in Muslim areas, have enough food to last a month.”

Germany said it did not consider the threat particularly credible. An interior ministry spokesman noted the Abu Hafs group claimed responsibility for last year’s power cuts in New York that turned out to be caused by a technical failure.

A British security source also said the threat was not credible: “They claimed the Madrid bombings and it clearly wasn’t them ... They’re just repeating the same old bile.”

“Of course we take any type of terrorist threat on European territory very seriously,” Chirac told a joint news conference in Paris with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

But asked whether France would increase security, he said: “We are doing the absolute maximum in this area.” Berlusconi echoed his comments.

In Spain, whose new government pulled troops out of Iraq after the March 11 bombings, an interior ministry spokeswoman said: “In no case have communiques influenced the government’s decisions and, therefore, they will not influence it now.”

David Claridge, managing director of Janusian Security Risk Management in London, said he was sceptical about whether the group was part of al Qaida, which he said did not typically give advance threats to commit attacks on or around specific dates.

But he added: “It’s clearly concerning that any organisation is making threats of that sort of nature. An ultimatum was made, the ultimatum has clearly not been adhered to, so I would expect that this would push the threat level up.”

Bahrain warning

The US has urged its citizens in Bahrain to consider leaving after receiving “credible” information about planned attacks on US and western targets in the country, home to the US Navy Fifth Fleet.

“The department of state warns US citizens to defer travel to Bahrain. American citizens currently in Bahrain are urged to consider departing,” the US embassy said in a July 1 advisory. “The department has received information that extremists are planning attacks against US and other western interests in the kingdom of Bahrain. Credible information indicates that extremists remain at large and are planning attacks in Bahrain.” Bahraini officials were not immediately available to comment.

It is less than two weeks since Bahrain arrested six men on suspicion of supporting al Qaida and planning attacks in the Gulf state, but then freed them because of lack of evidence.

Bahrain’s neighbour is Saudi Arabia, which has been hit by a wave of suicide bombings and shootings of westerners carried out by al Qaida terrorists. The embassy gave no details.