LONDON - Pakistani police today said they were holding Islamic militants who may have had links with the suspects in the London bombings, while Prime Minister Tony Blair asked Muslim leaders how to weed out extremists blamed for radicalizing Muslim youth.

In Pakistan, the police chief of an eastern Punjab province town said officials were trying to find out whether the "London bombings have any tentacles in Pakistan, especially in Lahore."

"We are holding a few militants who are suspected of having links to the London suicide bombers," said Lahore Police Chief Tariq Saleem. He did not name the suspects or say how many were detained.

Lahore lies near

the border with India. Many militant groups maintain clandestine offices there, and some al-Qaida operatives have been arrested in the city.

More than two dozen representatives of the Muslim community, meanwhile, met with Blair this morning.

The community members discussed anti-terror legislation the government plans to introduce by the end of the year, saying they fear the laws may unfairly targeted their community.

Elsewhere, British officials today investigated whether one of the London suicide bombers used perfume bottles to make his bomb even deadlier.

The metal perfume bottles could have been transformed into shrapnel in the blast. Investigators are still trying to determine what material was used in the four bombs detonated aboard three subways and a bus in the capital. At least 56 people were killed.

Clues that shed light on the bombings stretch to Pakistan. It appears that al-Qaida organizers around Europe may also have provided organizational help and could have been involved in other terrorist plots.

Shahid Hayyat, deputy director at Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, told The Associated Press that three of the London suspects traveled to Karachi in southern Pakistan last year - suspected bus bomber Hasib Hussain, 18, last July, and alleged subway attackers Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, and Shahzad Tanweer, 22, in November.

He said the purpose of their trip was unclear "but I know that our security agencies are trying to get such details."