Did Britain know about Mossad hit? Israeli agent claims MI6 was tipped off .

Innocent Briton Paul Keeley (L) and (R) the picture in his cloned passport

CCTV footage from the hotel shows Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (circled) arriving at the hotel

'Outrage' David Miliband has vowed to find out how the assassins were able to steal British people's identities

'You will see fire, and bullets, and deeds': Hamas militants in front of a photograph of al-Mabhouh during the rally denouncing his killing

Oath of revenge: Hamas militants stamping on an Israeli flag during a memorial rally for Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Gaza last night

Nothing more to add: Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor leaving the Foreign Office

Hamas militants in a refugee camp brandish their weapons during a parade to honour their dead commander

* Agent claims MI5 and Foreign Office were tipped off
* David Miliband vows to 'get to the bottom' of affair
* Gordon Brown promises an inquiry into identity theft
* Dubai police chief calls for arrest of Mossad head
* Hamas promises retaliation against Israel

MI6 was tipped off that Israeli agents were going to carry out an 'overseas operation' using fake British passports, it was claimed last night.

A member of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, said the Foreign Office was also told hours before a Hamas terrorist chief was assassinated in Dubai.

The tip-off did not say who the target would be or even where the hit squad would be in action.

But the claim from a credible source that the Government had some prior knowledge of the abuse of UK passports will strengthen calls for ministers to come clean about what they knew and when.
It came as more details emerged of how Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was lured into a trap by Palestinian double agents last month before being smothered with a pillow.

The killers tried to make his death look like an accident.A British security source who met the Mossad agent, and has a track record of providing reliable information, told the Daily Mail: 'This is a serving member of Israeli intelligence.

'He says the British Government was told very, very briefly before the operation what was going to happen. There was no British involvement and they didn't know the name of the target. But they were told these people were travelling on UK passports.'

The security source said that the tip-off was not a request for permission to use British passports but more a 'courtesy call' to let the security services know 'a situation' might blow up.
The Mossad man said Israeli intelligence chiefs understand British authorities will have to 'slap them on the wrist' and added: 'The British government has to be seen to be going through the motions.'

The Israeli's claims contradict Foreign Office assertions that the UK knew nothing of the affair until shortly before the Dubai authorities went public over the assassination earlier this week.

However officials in the Gulf state have claimed that British ministers may have been alerted by Dubai last month about the use of the passports.

If MI6 received a tip-off from Mossad it is not certain it would have been passed to Foreign Secretary David Miliband, particularly if it was vague.
Intelligence officers may have preferred to wait before alerting ministers. But any suggestion that officials turned a blind eye to an extra-judicial killing will strengthen calls for a public inquiry into the UK's involvement in the war on terrorism.

Judges have already ruled that British spies have been complicit in the torture of terrorist suspects.

It will also fuel suspicions in some Arab countries that Britain was 'complicit' in the killing of al-Mabhouh.

A Foreign Office spokesman insisted last night it was 'not correct' to claim that Britain knew in advance about the passports.

He said: 'We received the details of the British passports a few hours before the press conference [by police in Dubai]. We were able to respond to the Dubai authorities on the authenticity of the passports the next day.'

And a Government spokeswoman today insisted it only found out about the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month when details appeared in media reports.

The department insisted it was only told that cloned British passports were involved shortly before authorities in the Gulf state went public with the information.

'Any suggestion that we knew anything about the murder in Dubai before it happened, including about the misuse of British passports, is completely untrue,' the spokeswoman said.

'As we have said already, the Dubai authorities told us about the role of British passports on February 15, several hours before their press conference. We told them the following day that the passports used were fraudulent.

'The head of the Dubai police has also made clear that embassies were not contacted until shortly before the identity of the suspects was revealed.'

The British source told the Mail he has known the Mossad man for more than 20 years and they met as part of a longstanding arrangement.

He said British-Israeli intelligence relations were 'jogging along very nicely when nobody knew - then it all became public'.

The Israeli agent rejected suggestions that intelligence-sharing between the two nations might be damaged.

He said Mossad was handling several sources within the UK Muslim community and added: 'There is no question of jeopardising that information flow.'

The revelation of a 'tip-off' came after Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor was 'invited' to the Foreign Office and asked to co-operate fully with the inquiry into the forged passports by the Serious Organised Crime Agency.