King Abdullah told the BBC, hours before arriving in London for a state visit, that Britain was not doing enough in the war on terror.

'I believe that most countries are not taking this issue too seriously, including, unfortunately, Great Britain,' he said through a translator.

'We sent information to Great Britain before the terrorist attacks in Britain, but unfortunately no action was taken, and it may have been able to avert the tragedy.'

Months before the attack in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people and wounded hundreds on London's transit network, Riyadh told the British and US governments that it had arrested a young Saudi man who confessed to raising money for a terrorist attack in crowded areas of the British capital, officials told The Associated Press.

The Saudis had obtained information that the attack would involve explosives and a Syrian contact for financing, and that at least some of the four attackers would be British citizens, according to officials in several countries with direct access to the information, the officials said.

They also said that the investigation had not connected any players from the July 2005 attacks to the original Saudi warning and that the information provided in December 2004 did not provide attackers' names, a date, specific location or time of attack.

But they said the information gleaned from the suspect after he was captured returning to Saudi Arabia was detailed enough to heighten British concerns about the possibility of an attack around July 2005 in crowded sections of London, including nightclubs.

The bombings were Britain's most devastating peacetime attack.

Following the King's comments, a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Reuters that no warnings were received before the attacks.

'We made it very clear at the time that no specific warnings were received from any source,' he said. 'We do have a very close intelligence relationship with the Saudis and cooperation on counter- terrorism is generally very good. We just happen to disagree on this point.'

King Abdullah's three-day state visit has prompted protests in Britain from critics of the Saudi government's human rights record.

Protesters are due to stage a human rights demonstration outside the Saudi Embassy in London tomorrow, supported by figures including senior ruling Labour party lawmaker John McDonnell.

'The British people will be aghast at the government entertaining on a state visit one of the most prominent anti- democratic and human rights abusing leaders in the world,' he said.

A separate statement yesterday said Foreign Minister David Miliband would be unable to attend a conference alongside his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud al-Faisal.

He would be on leave after adopting a child, his office said, without giving details.

Mr Miliband, whose violinist wife Louise is an American citizen, adopted a boy named Jacob, his office said.

A Foreign Office spokesman denied that the cancellation was a snub to the Saudis prompted by the King's comments on terrorism.

Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells replaced Mr Miliband, but officials said the Prince had also decided not to attend the scheduled meeting.

The King is also set to visit Italy, Germany and Turkey after Britain.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE