British court issued warrant for Israeli ex-minister - Update

London/Jerusalem - Israel on Tuesday urged Britain to stop "radical" pro-Palestinian groups from "exploiting" its legal system, after a London court issued then later withdrew an arrest warrant for a senior Israeli politician. It was reported in Britain on Tuesday that the warrant was issued for the arrest of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, a member of cabinet during Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.

Livni, now Israel's opposition leader, had been due to address a conference hosted by a Jewish charity group in London last Sunday but canceled her attendance, the Guardian newspaper reported.

The Westminster magistrates court withdrew the warrant when it was discovered that she was not visiting the country, it was reported Tuesday.

British media said the warrant was issued at the request of lawyers acting for some of the Palestinian victims of the fighting in Gaza between late December 2008 and late January but it was later dropped.

Israel's Foreign Ministry called the court decision "cynical" and called on the British government to "implement once and for all its promises to act against the attempts by anti-Israeli elements to exploit the British legal system against Israel and its citizens"

"Israel rejects the cynical and legal step taken at the initiative of radical elements in the British court," ministerial spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

Tayab Ali, the solicitor who tried to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on behalf of 16 Palestinians, told the Guardian his firm was "ready, willing and able to act for clients to seek the arrest of anyone suspected of war crimes" who traveled to Britain.

A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard declined to comment on the affair. "We don't discuss warrants until they are executed," she told German Press Agency dpa.

Britain's Foreign Office said it was considering the implications of the case.

It said in a statement: "The UK is determined to do all it can to promote peace in the Middle East and to be a strategic partner of Israel. To do this, Israel`s leaders need to be able to come to the UK for talks with the British government. We are looking urgently at the implications of this case."

In Israel, Livni`s office was reported as saying that she had decided in advance not to travel to Britain. But lawyers had appeared unaware of that when they approached the court last week. The judge refused to issue the warrant until it was clear Livni was in fact in the country, as he had been erroneously informed on Sunday, said the Guardian.

"I am not at liberty to confirm her precise reasons for not attending," said Samuel Hayek, chairman of the Jewish National Fund in Britain.

"In any event, it is regrettable that the British government is unable to conduct free dialogue with Israel's most senior statesmen and politicians," he added in a statement.

According to the Guardian report, Livni`s office told the Ynet website: "Scheduled meetings with government figures in London could not take place close to the conference and would have necessitated a longer-than-planned absence from Israel."

In September the court was asked to issue a warrant for the arrest of Barak under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, which gives courts in England and Wales universal jurisdiction in war crimes cases.

Ehud Barak, who was attending a meeting at the British Labor Party conference in Brighton, escaped arrest after the Foreign Office told the court that he was a serving minister who would be meeting his British counterparts. The court that he enjoyed immunity under the State Immunity Act 1978. As an ex-minister, Livni would not enjoy any such immunity.