Belgium confirms metro bomber's Paris link

The man who blew himself up on the Brussels metro this week had been sought in connection with the November terror attacks in Paris.

Belgian prosecutors have confirmed they issued an international arrest warrant in December for one of two brothers blamed for deadly bomb blasts in Brussels this week because he was wanted in connection with last year's Paris attacks.

Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, blew himself up on a crowded rush hour train in Brussels on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

They confirmed in a statement on Thursday that he was previously suspected of using a false identity to rent a property in the Belgian city of Charleroi, which was used as a safe house by members of an Islamist cell that carried out the November 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

Belgian police searched the property on December 9 and issued an international arrest warrant for Bakraoui on December 11.

His details and photo appear on a list of wanted people on the website of Interpol.

Prosecutors say his brother Ibrahim, 29, had been one of two men who blew themselves up at Brussels airport in the co-ordinated attacks on Tuesday.