ISTANBUL, Oct 25 (AFP) - Britain's Prince Charles on Monday attended a ceremony to inaugurate the restored British consulate in downtown Istanbul that was the target of a deadly bomb attack last year blamed on Al-Qaeda.
The building, surrounded by the bustling side streets that house bars, shops and restaurants in the crowded business district of Beyoglu, was under tight security.
Police snipers were positioned on rooftops and security forces blocked off approaches to the building for the ceremony, which was closed to the media.
Turkish Tourism Minister Erkan Mumcu, religious leaders including Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeus I, nominal head of the Greek Orthodox Church, the mayor and governor of Istanbul and a representative of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also attended.
The restoration of the consulate -- the British embassy when Istanbul was the Ottoman capital -- whose upper floors were destroyed by fire in 2000, was nine weeks from completion when a car bomb attack struck on November 20, 2003.
The suicide bombing killed 16 people, 10 of them consulate staff, including Consul-General Roger Short.
The attack, claimed by a Turkish group linked to the Al-Qaeda network, was timed to coincide with another suicide bombing the same day against the headquarters here of Britain's HSBC bank; it came just five days after the bombings of two Istanbul synagogues.
The four attacks killed a total of 63 people and wounded hundreds of others.
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, was due to leave for Ankara immediately after the ceremony to meet President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and have dinner with Erdogan.
In the Turkish capital, he will also attend a dance workshop for the disabled that is sponsored by the British Council.
Security fears have thrown a veil of secrecy over details of Prince Charles's visit here and both Turkish and British officials have refused to confirm or deny reports that he will briefly visit the southeastern Turkish city of Mardin before flying on to Jordan.
Mardin, an ethnically diverse, 7,000-year-old city of spectacular stone architecture perched on a craggy hill overlooking the Mesopotamian plain, has so far failed in its long-standing effort to get on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.
10/25/2004 11:06 GMT - AFP