British Pursue Link Between 2 Sets of Bombers

"The procedures have been reviewed and reviewed and reviewed for many months," he told Sky News in an interview. "This is not a Metropolitan Police policy, it is a national police policy."

Blair said that when confronting suspected suicide bombers who might have explosives strapped to their chests, "there is no point in shooting somebody's chest -- the only way to deal with this is to shoot in the head." Police officers had to make "incredibly fast decisions under life-threatening conditions," he said, pledging a full investigation into the killing.

According to the official account, plainclothes officers who had received information tracing a suspected terrorist to an apartment block in south London mistakenly followed de Menezes when he emerged from one of the buildings on Friday morning. Police said he was wearing a baseball cap and a heavy jacket on a warm day, and they suspected he might be carrying explosives. When he got off a bus and entered the Stockwell subway station, they raced after him in hot pursuit and shot him dead in a subway car.

De Menezes's friends and relatives did not accept Blair's statement of regret. "Apologies are not enough," his cousin, Alex Alves Pereira, tearfully told reporters at his London apartment. "I believe my cousin's death was result of police incompetence."

Pereira said his cousin, who had lived in London for three years, was from the Brazilian city of Gonzaga. He retraced his cousin's steps Sunday afternoon with a pack of reporters and cameramen in tow, taking the same bus that de Menezes took when he was followed by police.

"If he had a bomb he could have blown it off on the bus," Pereira told reporters. "There's no explanation for what they have done."

Friends and relatives peacefully demonstrated in the rain outside police headquarters at New Scotland Yard, and Brazil's foreign minister, who was in London for a previously scheduled visit, met officials at the Foreign Office to seek an explanation for the shooting. "The Brazilian government and the public are shocked and perplexed that a peaceful and innocent person should have been killed," Celso Amorim told reporters. "Brazil is totally in solidarity with Britain in the fight against terror but people should be cautious to avoid the loss of innocent life."

At a Brazilian cafe on Oxford Street in central London where de Menezes was described as a regular, owner Luiz de Souza denounced the slaying as "barbaric" and said police owe the public a full explanation.

"Five shots in the back because he is supposed to have too big a coat on?" de Souza wondered. "He comes in here almost every day, he always wears the same jacket, I know this jacket. It is a Levi's jeans jacket."

"From what I heard, the police were in plainclothes and were following him. Maybe Jean was worried. Then they draw guns, and probably he got scared and ran away," de Souza said. "Everyone is scared these days."

De Souza dismissed the possibility that a language barrier might have played a role in the shooting. "Jean spoke very good English. Very good. Better than mine, almost, and I've been here 20 years. He would have understood every single word they said."

De Souza said he last saw de Menezes two days before he was killed, when they had lunch together at the cafe, where a large green, yellow and blue Brazilian flag shrouded in black gauze now hangs in the upstairs picture window.

"He was a very sociable person. Everyone here is very shocked, very sad and upset. Many are saying they're going back to Brazil because it's getting worse here day by day. I know many who already have gone back," de Souza said.

At the Stockwell station where the shooting occurred, there were more than 20 bouquets, most accompanied with angry messages. "Five Bullets in the Head -- Who's Guilty?" said one poster. "Their Game -- Our Blood" said another.

Staff writer Tamara Jones and special correspondent Glenda Cooper contributed to this report.