STOCKHOLM, Nov 1 (AFP) - Prime ministers of the five Nordic countries meeting here on Monday said they were worried by a US warning of potential terror attacks in the region, but claimed that security was high enough to ward off the threat.
"We take (the warning) very seriously (but) we already have good security, and this warning will not affect our actions," Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson told reporters during a recess from talks with his counterparts from Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland at a Nordic Council meeting in Stockholm on Monday.
The leaders had gathered to discuss a number of issues, including a joint policy to pressure the European Union to raise alcohol taxes, but spent most of the news conference answering questions about a US-issued terror alert.
The US State Department on Sunday warned US citizens living in or passing through Nordic and Baltic states to be on their guard against possible imminent terrorist attacks in crowded public places.
Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said Norway had decided to evacuate its embassy in Riga on Monday, but would not disclose whether that decision had been based on the same information that led to the US terror alert.
"I don't want to say anything more than that we have closed our embassy in Riga today based on concrete information that we have received through cooperation with (foreign security) services," he said, adding that the country would continuously evaluate the threat level in Riga to determine when it would be safe to reopen the embassy there.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen meanwhile told reporters that "there are no concrete indications that Americans or American interests in Denmark should be seriously threatened, but nonetheless, it's obvious that in connection with the US elections we have increased the security levels ... That was done by Danish security service last week already."
Finland, which was singled out in the US warning, is taking the threat very seriously, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said, but insisted that there was no indication of any specific threat against the country.
11/01/2004 14:15 GMT - AFP