Brussels, 10/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - Speaking on Wednesday, Security Commissioner Franco Frattini took the view that it was necessary to neutralise the Al-Qaeda cells in Somalia. He felt the problem did not lie with the Americans but with the terrorists. During a RAI 3 radio interview, he dissociated himself from the position expressed on Tuesday by the European Commission further to American air raids in Somalia. Amadeu Atafai, spokesman for European Development Commissioner Louis Michel, said “such incidents do not help in the long term”. Frattini asserted: “It is certain Somalia is becoming one of the main areas for Al-Qaeda and fundamentalist bases” and that such cells are obviously “a great threat to the whole world” and should be eliminated. The Commissioner concluded by saying that the problem certainly does not lie with the Americans but with the terrorists. “Terrorists are a threat to us, Europeans, and to the world as a whole”, he added. (bc)