Briton Christopher Rodway died in the attack

Police cordoned off an area in the centre of the city after the explosion, which happened just after Friday prayers finished.

It was initially unclear whether the vehicle had been booby-trapped or whether an assailant had thrown a bomb through an open window.

Police searched the couple's house and a neighbour's car for further bombs but found nothing.

On 22 November 2000 three Britons, including Steve Coughlan from Cheshire and Mark Paine, and an Irish woman were injured in a second attack in the capital.

On 15 December 2000 another Briton - David Brown, from Edinburgh - survived after another bomb attack in Khobar, eastern Saudi Arabia.

The explosion occurred as Mr Brown tried to remove a small parcel which had been placed on his windscreen.

Mr Brown, 32, a customer services manager for Coca-Cola International, suffered hand and eye injuries.

Riyadh is home to several thousand Britons

On 20 December 2000 a Lebanese man and a Belgian living in Riyadh were arrested by the Saudi authorities as part of an investigation into a group suspected of smuggling illegal liquor and selling it in the kingdom.

Another bomb was defused, without injury, in Riyadh on 14 January 2001.

On 4 February 2001 three men appeared on Saudi television confessing to their part in the bombing campaign.

Alexander 'Sandy' Mitchell, an anaesthetic technician from Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow, William Sampson, a marketing consultant from Canada, and Belgian doctor Ralf Schyvens did not explain the motive for the attacks and looked nervous.

All three claimed they were acting "under orders" but did not say who had ordered the bombing.

Canadian suspect William Sampson gives his confession

The Saudi authorities speculated that the bombings were related to some sort of feud between groups controlling the illegal liquor trade.

They also insisted the trio would go on trial under the sharia system, under which the sentence for murder is execution by beheading.

But Mr Mitchell's sister, Margaret Dunn, said she believed her brother was drugged and forced to make the confession.

On 5 February 2001 Mr Rodway's father, Jerry, 69, a retired sales representative from Salisbury, Wiltshire, said the three deserved the death penalty if they were proved to have killed his son.

On 15 March 2001 in a British TV interview Mr Coughlan cast doubt on the evidence against the trio.

He said Mr Schyvens' confession contradicted the facts.

On 3 April 2001 Dr Saad Al-Fagih, the director of the Movement for Islamic Reform, told the BBC he believed the bombings were the work of Islamic militants.

He said the Saudi authorities detained 50 Islamic fundamentalists at the same time as the three westerners were arrested, and he believed they were behind the bombings.

Jack Straw is under pressure to clarify the situation

Dr Al-Fagih said the televised confessions were a cover-up to divert attention away from the truth and to present an impression of stability to western investors.

On 17 May 2001 Saudi Arabia's Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmed al-Saud told the Al-Okaz newspaper the government knew who was behind the bombings.

He said the attacks were linked to "individuals involved in illegal activities" but he refused to name them.

On 13 August 2001 three more British men appeared on Saudi television confessing to a role in the attacks.

They were named as Jamie Lee, from Cardiff, James Cottle, from Manchester, and Les Walker.

Everything then went quiet as the men sat in custody awaiting their trial.

But on 27 April 2002 reports came out of Saudi Arabia suggesting one of the men had been secretly sentenced to death.

The Daily Mail reported that Mr Mitchell had been sentenced to death and The Guardian said Mr Lee and Mr Cottle from Manchester had been jailed for 18 years.

But one of the men's lawyer, Saleh al-Hujailan, said the reports were "premature".

He said he had been asked to prepare the men's defence in anticipation of a trial within three to four weeks although a final judgement might be a couple of months away.

On 30 April Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram called on the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, to find out from the Saudis what had actually happened.