Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News

A SECOND batch of secret government files has been found on a train, a British newspaper reported.

The Independent, in a preview made available late Saturday, yesterday said the papers dealt with Britain's approach to tackling the financing of global terrorism, the drugs trade and money-laundering.

The newspaper said the documents were found on a train bound for London last Wednesday, the same day another batch of secret documents on al-Qaida and Iraq were handed to the BBC after being left on a train.

The BBC said those documents, stamped "UK Top Secret," carried assessments of al-Qaida's vulnerabilities and the capabilities of Iraq's security forces.

The Independent yesterday said it had returned the documents and would not be publishing any details.

It was not immediately clear where the documents came from or which government body was responsible for their security. Britain's Cabinet Office, which coordinates policy across various government departments, did not return a call seeking comment late Saturday.

The British government has suffered a series of embarrassing security breaches. In January a computer carrying information on 600,000 prospective military recruits was stolen from the car of a Royal Navy recruitment officer in central England. In December, a disc containing personal information of 3 million driving-test candidates was lost.