WARSAW, July 21 (AFP) - Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday dug in their heels insisting they would not bow to an ultimatum from a group claiming links with Al-Qaeda to withdraw their troops from Iraq or face a terrorist attack. "When you give into pressure from terrorists it increases the threat for others," said Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka, whose country is a staunch supporter of Washington in Iraq where it heads a 6,500-strong multinational force.
"This is an example of such a situation," he was quoted as telling parliament by the PAP news agency, insisting Poland did "not plan to withdraw from Iraq."
"We will not bow to the demands of terrorists," concurred Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov, speaking in Berlin.
"We will resist them. To give in to the demands of terrorists will only encourage more terror attacks," said Parvanov, whose country has 470 troops stationed in Iraq.
The stance came after a group calling itself the "Al-Qaeda organisation in Europe" in a website statement threatened both countries with attacks unless they withdrew their troops from Iraq.
The statement, which Poland`s security agency ABW said it believed came from a group with links to Jordanian extremist Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, demanded that Poland and "especially its Prime Minister Marek Belka, pull out invading Polish troops or pay the price, like what happened in Spain".
"Withdraw your troops from Iraq or we will make you hear the sound of explosions," it said.
Of Bulgaria it said: "The crusader Bulgarian government, ally of the Americans ... only knows the language of blood which will be expressed as in Spain, Washington and New York," added the text, posted on the website http://www.ansarnet.ws/vb/
It was referring to the September 2001 suicide attacks on New York and Washington, and the March 11 train bombings in Madrid which killed 191 people.
In Warsaw the head of the security services Andrzej Barcikowski said that there was no immediate sign of a terrorist threat.
"We have no reason to be worried with regard to a possible terrorist attack on Polish territory," he said, adding the services were "taking the signs of a threat seriously."
In Sofia the Bulgarian national security services said in a statement that they have no "clear alert of any threat of terror attacks against Bulgaria."
Bulgaria vowed last week that it would keep its troops in Iraq after a Bulgarian truck driver was beheaded by Islamic extremists who demanded the United States free all Iraqi prisoners within 24 hours.
The driver had been kidnapped days earlier along with a colleague, whose fate remains uncertain.
A Philippine hostage was released by Iraqi kidnappers on Tuesday after his government bowed to demands to pull its military contingent out of Iraq.
The head of the Bulgarian national security services, General Ivan Tchobanov, said Wednesday that this had paved the way for further threats by extremists against members of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
"After the Philippines gave in, it was to be expected that there will be more such threats against the other members of the coalition" in Iraq, he told the private news agency Focus.
The chief of staff of the Bulgarian army, General Nikola Kolev, agreed.
"We had to expect this. The terrorist organisations are trying to break apart the coalition," he told national television.