BRITIAN/ Australian links:Australian police were last night questioning two foreign national doctors in connection with terrorist attacks in Britain.
Dr Mohamed Haneef (27) was arrested at Brisbane airport where he was about to board a plane for India with a one-way ticket.
The registrar at Gold Coast Hospital was detained following a tip-off from British police investigating last week's attempted bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
Police have confirmed a suspect held in Britain had a phone conversation with a person being held by authorities in Australia.
The second doctor, who has not been named, was said by Australia's prime minister, John Howard, to be "assisting police with their inquiries".
"The identity of that second person arose from the discussion that occurred with the first person taken into custody."
Mr Howard said Australia's security warning level has not been lifted. "We have no information suggesting that there is now a greater likelihood of any terrorist incident in Australia than there was late last week."
Dr Haneef has been working in Australia since last September on what is known as the 457 visa programme, which allows immigrants to take up temporary employment when vacancies cannot be filled locally.
He graduated from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences in India in 2002. His wife initially lived with him but returned to India this year.
Queensland's state premier, Peter Beattie, said Dr Haneef was previously based in Liverpool and was recruited through an advertisement in the British Medical Journal.
Police took a bag full of items and several computer discs from Dr Haneef's apartment yesterday. A nearby address was also searched and neighbours were questioned. A search has also been carried out at the hospital.
The police did not detail what had been obtained in the searches except to say that no explosive material had been located.
Australian federal police commissioner Mick Keelty said the search warrants were obtained over the weekend on advice from Britain. "The grounding for the search warrants was that we were alleging that Dr Haneef was connected to a terrorist group," he told ABC television. "Beyond that, it is subject to the investigation and the evidence may or may not be forthcoming."
Greens senator Bob Brown said the arrest was a "wake-up" for the government and proved that highly skilled immigrants should be "no less vetted than the poorest person".