Plans by international terrorists aiming at Hong Kong have twice failed in the past 25 years, but a leading expert on global terror said yesterday the SAR could not be ruled out as a target.
Professor Paul Wilkinson, an academic and author on political violence, says Islamic fanatics may now focus their hate on so-called 'lesser Satans'.
Security sources also told the South China Morning Post that the US attacks had prompted a top-level security review for the World Economic Forum, to be held here at the end of next month, and for the Pacific Economic Co-operation Conference, scheduled for November at the Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Professor Wilkinson, of the Department of International Relations at St Andrews University in Scotland, said: 'The organisation [Osama bin Laden's network] I suspect is behind this hate what they call the 'lesser Satans' almost as much as the Great Satan [US].
'Do I think that America is the only target? No. Certainly Israel and Britain come high up, but other places which have close links to the US and are seen as centres of significant US-Western business interests should be on high security vigilance.
'I don't think any of us can comfortably think we are immune. We must also not overlook the danger that the magnitude of this attack could inspire other groups to emulate it in some way.'