NEW YORK, Aug 17: Pakistan ranks third on the list of countries most likely of 186 countries to be the target of a terrorist attack within next three months followed by the United States, said the New York Times quoting a research company report to be released on Monday.

Only Colombia and Israel are ahead on the list of terrorist attacks, the London-based World Market Research Center (WMRC) which compiled a World Terrorism Index said.

Britain is ranked 10th, the highest of any European country. “Motivation for such an attack among Muslim extremist groups is very high owing to the UK’s close alliance with the US,” the analysts wrote, “while sophisticated militant networks are known to be present within the country.”

“Another Sept 11-style terrorist attack in the United States is highly likely,” the report states. “Networks of militant Islamist groups are less extensive in the US than they are in Western Europe, but US-led military action in Afghanistan and Iraq has exacerbated anti-US sentiment.”

Guy Dunn, a WMRC director and the author of the report, described the following as criteria used for the rankings: motivation of terrorist groups, the presence of terror cells, the scale and frequency of past attacks, the ability of terror groups to organize and obtain weapons, and the ability of the government to prevent the attacks.

Each of the five categories is weighted, he said, with the motivation of terrorist groups receiving the most emphasis, according to the paper.

Pakistan, whose government has struggled to stop the activities of individuals and cells that espouse and pursue terrorism, is in third place, the report says.