Britain must keep fighting wars abroad - Blair

PLYMOUTH, England, Jan 12 (Reuters) Prime Minister Tony Blair, defending his interventionist policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, said today Britain should carry on influencing world affairs through fighting wars as well as peacekeeping.

Blair said while public opinion might be divided, it was up to politicians to figure out how to gain the consent of voters to do both.

''Terrorism can't be defeated by military means alone, true. But it can't be defeated without it,'' Blair said in a speech at a naval base in Plymouth, southwest England.

War has become more controversial since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Blair said, with campaigns waged against a militant worldwide movement based on a mis-reading of Islam, rather than conventional troops fighting conventional battles.

Blair's support for the US-led invasion of Iraq has proven deeply unpopular at home where concern is also mounting about growing British casualties in Afghanistan.

The prime minister has said he will step down this year in part because of public anger over his unswerving support for President George W Bush's military intervention in Iraq.

He reiterated today that he believed it was ''ludicrous'' to suggest ousting Saddam Hussein or the Taliban had inflamed Muslim opinion.

Blair, also said rolling 24-hour media cover broacasting instant, often gruesome images also complicated the task politicians face persuading voters the battle is worth fighting.

ENEMY PROPAGANDA ''Public opinion will be divided, feel the cost is too great, the campaign too long ... They will be constantly bombarded by the propaganda of the enemy, often quite sympathetically treated by their own media, to the effect that it's really all 'our', that is, the West's fault,'' Blair said.

He said there was a risk ''politicians decide it's all too difficult and default to an unstated, passive disengagement, that doing the right thing slips almost unconsciously into doing the easy thing.'' Blair has also faced criticism from military commanders who say British forces are underfunded and overstretched. He acknowledged Britain would have to make new commitments to its armed forces if it pursues its current military profile.

''On the part of the military, they need to accept that in a volunteer armed force, conflict and therefore casualty may be part of what they are called upon to face,'' Mr Blair said.

Blair said he wanted to maintain a foreign policy that kept the American alliance strong and for Britain to fight terrorism wherever it may be and champion West Asia peace.

REUTERS BDP BD2059