Bin Laden on the move says Blair

Mr Blair said the West destroyed the terrorist training camps

Osama Bin Laden is on the move in Afghanistan but the UK and its allies will get him in the end, Tony Blair has said.

In a television interview, the prime minister also said that the UK was still considering which British troops would be deployed in Afghanistan.

We will get him in the end. Now when the end is, that is the question we need to ask

Tony Blair on Osama Bin Laden

"I think everyone understands this is not a conventional ground war," he told GMTV.

"We are considering now what troops Britain would want to put into the conflict in Afghanistan - I can't obviously go into the details of what that might be."

Mr Blair also suggested that some of the military objectives of the US and its allies had already been achieved - the destruction of terrorist training camps.

"In respect of Bin Laden himself, we know that he is on the move inside Afghanistan," Mr Blair said.

"But the reason we are having to act now against the regime inside Afghanistan is because they are sheltering him.

Civilian casualties

"We have considerably destroyed a lot of the military installations of the regime in Afghanistan, the Taleban regime, and we have got to carry on until that regime is changed or yields Bin Laden up."

The prime minister added: "We will get him in the end. When the end is, that is the question we need to ask."

He insisted that everything was being done to avoid civilian casualties but acknowledged some deaths were "inevitable".

Mr Blair was also quizzed by viewers on the controversy surrounding reports that government Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong told a Labour MP who opposes the bombing campaign that his views were equivalent to those who had tried to appease Hitler in the 1930s.

Public clash

The MP in question, Paul Marsden, then went public on his clash with Ms Armstrong.

Mr Blair denied his government was trying to gag Labour MPs who disagreed with policy.

"What people have been told is that if they want to make their views known and they disagree with what the government is doing, that's their democratic right.

"As far as I can see they are on TV or in the newspapers saying exactly what they want to say."

Mr Blair was also asked what sort of Christmas people could expect, to which he replied that he hoped that military aims would either be "accomplished" or getting to that point.

"What would be a real blessing would be if the peace process, not just in the Middle East but in Northern Ireland, was in place as well," he said.