Master spy novelist Frederick Forsyth told the BBC last week he would never have written a book in which his heroes botched their mission as did the hit team that killed a Hamas operative in Dubai a month ago.

The fact that at least 11 of the alleged killers were caught on the myriad closed-circuit television cameras around the emirate has most likely ensured those spies will never work in the field again.

The enormous media interest in the incident, coupled with the claims that Israel's famed Mossad intelligence agency was behind the assassination, has led to a backlash from European states.

Passports from four countries were used in the operation, with at least 10 of the travel documents being used without the knowledge of the people in whose names they were issued.

Israeli ambassadors have been hauled into meetings with the foreign ministries in their host states and European officials have been telling the media they want clarifications from Israel.

However, despite the current palaver, analysts in Israel believe the storm will eventually blow itself out and Israeli relations with European Union members will remain on track.

Media interest

There has been intense media speculation regarding all aspects of the assassination since Dubai police officers released film footage a week ago showing the events leading up to the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a member of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas.

That interest was further fuelled by the publication of mug- shots of six Brits, three Irish, and nationals from France and Germany. These were the faces of those said to have killed al- Mabhouh, entering Dubai on the passports of 11 Europeans.

Several newspapers asked how the agents could obtain the original passports of the Europeans in order to make highly accurate forged copies.

The London-based Jewish Chronicle suggested that when individuals are approved for immigration to Israel they hand in their passports to their local Israeli consular office for some 10 days. The passports could well be intercepted and copied at that point, the paper said.

Meanwhile, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph argued that the British government knew of the nature of the operation some two weeks prior to its being made public by the authorities in Dubai.

If true, that would mean the British government was possibly hoping it would not have to go public with its questioning of Israel, not would it have had to dispatch to Israel members of its Serious Organized Crimes Agency.

The suggestion of prior knowledge was denied by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in a report published by another British daily, The Guardian.