UK Games biggest security challenge since WW2: minister

LONDON (Reuters) - The 2012 Olympic Games in London may be the biggest security challenge for Britain since World War Two, a government minister said Friday.

Security Minister Alan West said Britain's preparations were in "good shape," but there were increased financial constraints because of the global banking crisis.

"We are not complacent ... we do not underestimate the scale of the Olympic challenge," he told a Games security seminar at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

The 30 Games venues around the country are expected to attract world leaders as well as 500,000 spectators a day and thousands of athletes and officials.

They will also be a magnet for protest groups trying to bring their message to billions of global television viewers.

Security has been a major concern at the Olympics since 1972 when 11 Israeli team members died in Munich after being held hostage by Palestinian gunmen.

Britain's role in Iraq and Afghanistan, as a leading U.S. ally, has made it a target for Islamic militants .

In July 2005, the day after London was awarded the Games, four young British Islamists killed 52 commuters in suicide bomb attacks on the capital's transport network.

"Since that tragic event, the UK has continued to face a high level of threat from terrorism -- we expect this threat to remain come the summer of 2012," said West, a former head of the Royal Navy.

"The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games promise to be the greatest sporting event in UK history and quite possibly the greatest security challenge that the UK has faced since the Second World War."

Major militant attacks in Mumbai last November and Lahore earlier this year were a "sober illustration of the terrorists' ability to use different methods and tactics," he said.

Some experts say Britain should spend at least twice the 600 million pounds ($1 billion) earmarked for Games security.

But West said organizers could fall back on Britain's extensive police and counter-terrorism forces.

"We all need to understand that we are operating within significant financial constraints," he said.

He added that security was being built into the Olympic venues at the design stage and that government bodies were working closely with police, transport and commercial partners.

(Editing by Tim Castle and Barry Moody)