The central control, based at Worcester, will gather information from emergency services nationwide and improve the availability of help to the worst-affected areas.

Fire chiefs have admitted that they struggled to cope with the scale of the floods and that many staff were near to collapse after working around the clock for three days.

The Met Office issued a severe weather warning of heavy rainfall with the North East, the Midlands and East Anglia expected to take the brunt of flooding this weekend.

The worst-affected places are Sheffield, Chesterfield, Rotherham, Doncaster, Wakefield and Leeds in the North; Louth, Horncastle, Grimsby, Tetney and Hull in the East of England; Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Nottingham in the Midlands; and Cheltenham in the West.

The national flood support centre will be run by Paul Hayden, chief fire officer for the Hereford and Worcester Fire Service. The centre was recommended after severe flooding at Boscastle in Cornwall in 2004.

Toll so far:-

£1bn The cost of flood insurance claims this week

27,000 homes hit by flooding

18in of water is enough to sweep away a car

21 severe flood warnings

A large chunk of them will not stumble out again until the early hours, after making the most of the "stylish cocktails" and "fabulous wine lists", not to mention the "premium draught and bottled beers" and listening to pounding tracks from the DJ.

At capacity the three-storey venue holds 1,770 revellers who, by closing time pour out in buoyant mood on to Haymarket and the surrounding streets. A car bomb outside would bring devastating and chilling results. The 18,000sq ft club has become a familiar part of the capital's melting pot where theatreland meets the bars and clubs of the West End.

Recruitment consultant Alastair Patterson, 25, from Brighton, works in an office next to Tiger Tiger and was out for the night with a group of friends. He said: "It was around 1.30am when the music was turned off and the lights went on. Doormen and security were going through the building escorting people out. It was all very orderly. "I've never seen a place empty so quickly. It was like a ghost town."

Ian Murray pulled out of the hearing when Zoobia Hussain appeared in a niqab, which covers the head and the face apart from the eyes. Mr Murray, 65, a taxi driver who has been a JP for 12 years, refused to give any reason for his walkout. Hussain, 32, believed to be a mother of five, appeared for what was due to be a brief administrative hearing this week before bench chairman Mr Murray and two colleagues at Manchester Magistrates Court. She denies causing £5,000 worth of criminal damage including graffiti to a housing association property from which she had been evicted.

Her solicitor, Judith Hawkins, said Hussain wanted to appear in the dock in the niqab because she "observed the Muslim religion and remains covered in public places when men are present".
The guidance issued in April says judges and magistrates should consider cases where defendants, victims, witnesses and lawyers wish to wear the niqab sensitively and on their individual merits.

A balance should be struck between the rights of Muslim women who wish to be veiled in the presence of men and the interests of justice, with the latter always paramount, it adds. Grounds for requesting the removal of a niqab could include ascertaining someone's identity or assessing whether they were telling the truth. Hussain would not comment after the case, but her solicitor said she had been "shocked and distressed", adding: "She suffered hurt feelings and felt intimidated and deeply embarrassed".

Reader Comment:- "Of course the Magistrate is right! She could do what she wants in her own country, but once she is in the UK, she, and all foreigners must, at all times, respect, what the host country says. How does the Magistrate know who he is dealing with?If the lawman is disciplined, then I can say that the once beautiful United Kingdom does not belong to the British anymore, but to the thousands of 'guests' which are in your county."

To the fundamentalist, the clubs with their sale of alcohol, often scantily dressed young women, loud music and decadent behaviour epitomise everything they abhor about the West. They are obvious "impact targets" for a spectacular attack because they occupy a controlled space and explosions are likely to result in a large death toll and horrific injuries.

An insight into the way the cell viewed women going to what they described as London's "biggest club" was provided by secret recordings of conversations made during the investigations. One gang member who was subsequently jailed branded all women attending the club as "slags". He told fellow plotters: "The biggest nightclub in Central London, no one can put their hands up and say they are innocent ... those slags dancing around."

Only last month it emerged that an Al Qaeda supergrass had claimed that a man on the run after fleeing one of the Government's controversial control orders had wanted to bomb a nightclub.

Two cars packed with petrol, nails and "patio gas" canisters were left primed to wreak destruction among London clubbers making their way home after a Thursday night out. Only the vigilance and courage of ambulancemen and police officers prevented massive loss of life.

Had either device gone off it would have generated a huge fireball and a shockwave spreading over 400 yards in all directions. If, as suspected, one had been primed to detonate before the other, people fleeing the first blast could have been caught by the second.

The drama came as it emerged that a 53-page document alerting businesses to the threat posed by VBIEDs
" vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices " had been issued to police two weeks ago. It had been passed on to the Tiger Tiger club only a few days before yesterday's events.

The incident also appeared to be foreshadowed by a posting on an internet forum used by terrorists, saying:
"Today I say: Rejoice, by Allah. London will be bombed."

Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, gave warning recently that car and lorry bombs were "the greatest danger" facing Britain.

Hours before police dismantled the first car bomb, a posting on the Al Hesbah chat forum pointed to an imminent Al Qaeda bombing in London.

The message, posted under the name Abu Osama al-Hazeen, gave the invasion of Iraq and the recent knighthood for Salman Rushdie as justification for a fresh terrorist attack on Britain. Al-Hazeen wrote: "Is Britain longing for Al Qaeda's bombings? We, and the whole world has seen what Britain has done ... their intention to honour Salman Rushdie who insulted and slandered Islam. "This 'honouring' came at a crucial time, a time when the whole nation is reeling from the Crusaders attacks on all Muslim lands.

"The British capital has witnessed blessed operations that shook it to its foundations. This was because the British had attacked the lands of Muslims and Al Qaeda is still threatening to strike against Britain to throw it out of the lands of Islam.

"But now, there's yet another reason for Al Qaeda to carry out such threats; the honouring of the apostate Salman Rushdie by the Crusaders ... Rushdie who insulted Islam ... and this reason has led Muslims to become even more sympathetic with the Mujahideen. "The question now is: Has London longed for the bombings of Al Qaeda? We say to Britain, the Emir of Al Qaeda, Sheikh Osama, has once threatened you, and he carried out his threats.

"Today I say: Rejoice ... By Allah London shall be bombed." Another poster on the forum responded: "Amen - we pray to Allah that the development of such operations would be under way." "Amen - O Allah make us witness this soon." Al-Hazeen replied: "Victory is very close - but you are just rushing it!"

The blaze is raging in the area of Saittas in the Troodos mountains, some 55km (30 miles) south-west of the capital Nicosia. Firefighters - backed by helicopters - are tackling the blaze, and Cyprus has called on Italy and Israel for help. Agriculture Minister Photis Photiou described the fire as "a big catastrophe".

He said the blaze was threatening the Troodos forest - one of the most scenic areas of the eastern Mediterranean island. Strong winds and a scorching heatwave had helped the fire to spread rapidly, officials said. Helicopters from British military bases on Cyprus are helping to douse the flames.

Firefighting aircraft are also expected to arrive from Italy and Israel within hours. The heatwave has been blamed for the deaths of three elderly people in Cyprus in the past week.

The image appears on the cover of the Polish weekly Wprost, and is titled "Stepmother of Europe". A Polish council overseeing ethics in the media said the montage overstepped "the limits of good taste". Tension between the neighbouring countries has been building following last week's European Union summit. "The Kaczynski brothers must bear the responsibility for this negative atmosphere," she told the Hannover-based Neuen Presse newspaper.

Ahead of the Brussels summit Poland demanded a boost to its EU voting rights at Germany's expense and threatened to refuse to sign up to a new EU treaty because it would give bigger countries such as Germany too much decision-making power.

In arguing for an extension of the vote system the Polish Prime Minister raised Poland's World War II suffering under Nazi Germany. And a day after Berlin said it wanted to heal the tensions exposed during the summit, Jaroslaw Kaczynski told Polish public RADIO "SOMETHING VERY NEGATIVE" IS HAPPENING IN GERMANY.

HE WENT ON TO COMPARE MODERN-DAY GERMANY TO THE NAZI ERA OF THE 1930S - BUT SAID EUROPEANS DID NOT DARE SPEAK OUT. "LIKE IN AN ERA WHICH HAS ALREADY PASSED, THE LARGE MAJORITY OF EUROPEANS DIDN'T HAVE THE COURAGE TO TALK ABOUT IT, IT IS THE SAME TODAY," MR KACZYNSKI SAID.

The Pride London event could see up to half a million revellers parade from Baker Street to Trafalgar Square.
The march will be followed by entertainment in Trafalgar Square. Presenters will include actor John Barrowman and TV host Graham Norton.

The event's organisers say the parade and festival will go ahead as normal despite Friday's car bomb alerts.
Police are investigating two explosive devices found in cars in the city's West End. Jason Pollock, chief executive of Pride London, told the BBC that after meetings with the Metropolitan Police it had been decided to keep the route as planned.

Many of them are without electricity or drinking water four days after a cyclone hit coastal districts. Eyewitnesses say there is almost no sign of government relief getting to the affected areas.

Police have fired tear gas on hundreds of angry protesters in the city of Turbat who were demanding help.
The central government has confirmed 14 deaths and 24 people missing in Balochistan since Tuesday, but other reports but the figure much higher.

Officials further north in the Khyber agency bordering Afghanistan say nearly 70 people have been killed. In Afghanistan, more than 80 people have died in recent days. Last weekend more than 200 people were killed in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, by floods and high winds. In India more than 140 were killed.

The first bomb, made of 60 litres of petrol, gas cylinders and nails, was found in a Mercedes outside a night club in Haymarket at 0130BST (0030GMT).

Police say a second device was found in a Mercedes in a car park in Park Lane after it was towed away from Cockspur Street, close to Trafalgar Square.

Both devices were "viable" and "clearly linked", police said.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command, said the discovery of the second device was "obviously troubling".

"There was a considerable amount of fuel and gas canisters, as in the first vehicle. There was also a substantial quantity of nails," he said.

It said this figure could rise if more properties are affected by further flooding. And the body warned that the overall cost of the damage could rise further, with more bad weather anticipated over the weekend. Greek Environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said that while Britain coped with the crisis over flooding, southern Europe was faced with a heatwave which was claiming the lives of many people.

As Britain's biggest-ever peacetime rescue operation continued, the Government was accused of "seriously underestimating" the chaos caused by this week's floods.

The death toll rose to at least seven after the body of a 60-year-old man was pulled from a canal in Lincolnshire. At least 600 have been injured since two months' worth of rain fell in a couple of hours on Monday.
More than 3,500 have had to be rescued from their homes, while many parts of the Midlands and northern England have been evacuated.

Forecasters are predicting more heavy showers over the weekend, with some flooded areas expected to get another two inches of rain, putting even more homes at risk.

"I can confirm police are attending a suspicious vehicle in Park Lane," she said. Park Lane is one of the most prestigious roads in central London. Earlier on Friday, police said they had found a bomb in a car in another area of central London.

A controlled explosion was carried out on the car, packed with 60 litres of petrol, gas cylinders and nails, in the early hours in Haymarket.

Police were alerted by an ambulance crew who saw smoke coming from the silver Mercedes, parked near the Tiger Tiger nightclub.

"International elements" are believed to be involved, the BBC has been told.

Police sources say it is quite possible the device failed to ignite - and might have been minutes away from exploding.

The death toll rose to at least seven after the body of a 60-year-old man was pulled from a canal in Lincolnshire.

At least 600 have been injured since two months' worth of rain fell in a couple of hours on Monday.
More than 3,500 have had to be rescued from their homes, while many parts of the Midlands and northern England have been evacuated.

Forecasters are predicting more heavy showers over the weekend, with some flooded areas expected to get another two inches of rain, putting even more homes at risk.

Eleven severe flood warnings remained in place yesterday, ten in the most badly affected parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The Environment Agency has another 52 flood warnings and 57 alerts in place across the UK.

There is growing anger among flood victims at the way developers have been allowed to build on flood plains without giving homes even the most basic defences. Many homeowners will be unable to return to their houses for nine months or more.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said: "The Government has not understood the scale, gravity and severity of what has happened.

"Fire crews and officers have been working to the point of collapse. We have witnessed the biggest rescue effort in peacetime Britain by emergency services and it's not over yet."