LONDON (AP) – Legislative investigators concluded that British intelligence agencies had “no culpable failures” before the July 7 transit bombings in London that killed 52 people, the committee’s chairman said Thursday.

The report released by the Intelligence and Security Committee said intelligence agents knew about two of the suicide bombers before the attacks, but did not concentrate on them because their focus was shifted to “known plans to attack the U.K.”

The investigators said this decision was understandable given the scale of the threat and limited resources.

Committee chairman Paul Murphy said there was no warning of the attacks, but conceded that more intelligence resources in Pakistan and at home might have helped authorities detect the plot.

The report also said the degree of al-Qaida involvement in the attacks, if any, was unclear, and it had found no links between the attacks and the people who mounted failed bombing attempts against the London transport system two weeks later.

The four bombers killed themselves and 52 others when they detonated backpacks jammed with explosives on three subway cars and a bus _ the worst terrorist attack in British history. Authorities have long held that the four were homegrown terrorists who acted alone.

“Neither the potential speed of radicalization nor the fact that British citizens could be radicalized to the point of suicide were understood” by security services before the attacks, said committee chairman Paul Murphy. “The committee are concerned that this could have had an impact on the ability of authorities to respond.”

“Greater coverage in Pakistan or more resources generally in the U.K. might have alerted the agencies to the intentions of the 7th of July group,” he added.

Three of the bombers’ families were originally from Pakistan and several had traveled there before the attacks.

The government Home Office was to release its narrative of the events leading up to the attacks later Thursday.

The Intelligence and Security Committee _ a panel of lawmakers that meets in secret to scrutinize intelligence work _ interviewed the heads of Britain’s two spy agencies as part of its work.

The report said intelligence agents were previously aware of Siddique Khan, leader of the attacks, but had not confirmed his identity until after the attacks.

The decision was made not to investigate Khan and another bomber agents were aware of, Shazad Tanweer, because “there were more pressing priorities at the time, including the need to disrupt known plans to attack the U.K,” the report said.

Murphy said there was no evidence at the time that the two unidentified men were involved in any attack plan against the country.

“When resources became available, attempts were made to find out more about these two and other peripheral contacts, but these resources were soon diverted back to what were considered to be higher investigative priorities,” it said.

The man later identified as Khan had been mentioned in reports from people detained outside Britain in 2004, the report said. “This reporting referred to men from the U.K. known only by pseudonyms who had traveled to Pakistan in 2003 and sought meetings with al-Qaida figures,” the committee said.

The report confirmed that Britain’s alert status had been downgraded from “severe general,” the second-highest, to “substantial” on May 26.

“The main reason given … was that there was no intelligence of a current credible plot to attack the U.K. at that time _ i.e. a group with established capability and current intent,” the report said.

Murphy said the committee believed it was unlikely that the lowering of the threat rating had hurt the chances of preventing the attacks or lowered responders’ alertness.

The Home Office report has been widely seen as an alternative to a full public inquiry, which could have heard evidence in open sessions.

Survivors of the bombings are campaigning for a public inquiry similar to the U.S. commission into the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, claiming the reports are not likely to address any mistakes made by government officials.

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On the Net:

Intelligence and Security Committee, http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/intelligence/

Home Office, http://ww.homeoffice.gov.uk/