MI5 chief 'did not quit over 7/7'

Dame Eliza's music choices included the Rolling Stones
The former head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, has denied that she quit her job as a result of criticism over the 7 July London bombings.

Revelations that MI5 had once tracked one of the bombers prompted speculation the attack could have been halted.

Dame Eliza, who stepped down as head of the service earlier this year, told the BBC she set her retirement date soon after being appointed in October 2002.

The Radio 4's Desert Island Discs interview was her first since retiring.

She stepped down as MI5 director general in April.

Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the four men who would go on to attack London in a series of suicide attacks, was being followed by MI5 some time before the bombings but a decision was made not to investigate him further.

Dame Eliza told the programme she wished the criticism both she and MI5 had faced over the attacks which killed 52 people, "had happened while I was still there, so I could have defended the service, so when I left, it could have gone with me".

'Unproductive' memoirs

Dame Eliza said there may have been mistakes made in decision-making processes with the service, but that it was unreasonable to expect intelligence to anticipate the movements of every person MI5 has ever looked at.

She added: "There are too many people with this sort of intention in the UK for us to be confident, as no service could be confident, of stopping 100%. We have stopped very, very many."

Dame Eliza also said she would not write her memoirs - when asked whether a book was on the horizon, she said: "Most certainly not.

"I think it would be not only wrong but unproductive and unsellable."

Her record choices for Desert Island Discs include the Rolling Stones singing Street Fighting Man, and I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself by the White Stripes.

Desert Island Discs is on BBC Radio 4 at 1115 GMT on Sunday