Straw denies split with US over Iraq

There have been calls for action beyond Afghanistan

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has denied there is any split between the US and the UK on whether military action should be extended to countries outside Afghanistan.

He described calls for Iraq to be attacked as coming from the "fringes" of the US government.

So far as Iraq is concerned... we have seen no evidence for the culpability of what happened in the United States in September

Jack Straw

He said that official statements by President George W Bush's government and UK ministers were "identical".

The comments came as an opinion poll suggested that three quarters of Britons approve of the way the crisis is being handled.

Mr Straw said that military strikes against other countries would only be made if circumstances matched those in Afghanistan.

"There is no such action on the agenda at present," he told a news conference in central London.

UN approval

Later in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme he said: "There are people on the fringes of the administration who have been talking about this (extending military action).

"So far as Iraq is concerned... we have seen no evidence for the culpability of what happened in the United States in September."

UK troops in Oman could be called upon

The prime minister, who is on a three-day Middle East visit to shore up support from Arab leaders, has been keen to stress that the current focus was on strikes against the Taleban and Osama Bin Laden's network.

In an interview with BBC Two's Newsnight, he stuck by his earlier statement that no other nation would be attacked without UN approval.

But he declined to say that the UK would definitely not be drawn into supporting US-led air strikes on other Middle Eastern states such as Iraq or Syria.

War aims detailed

Mr Blair, who is heading for another Middle East destination after visiting Oman on Wednesday, told the programme: "The first phase of our war is against Afghanistan.

"What I am not going to do is say that if there is evidence that emerges in respect of other terrorist operations elsewhere in the world we are not going to take action".

UK officials in Oman have published a detailed war book of the government's campaign aims which makes clear that the campaign centres around Afghanistan first and foremost.

The BBC's political editor Andrew Marr says it effectively sets out a whole series of "very high hurdles" which would prevent Britain from engaging in military strikes against other sovereign states.

Blair was met by the Sultan of Oman's special representative Dr Zawawi

Mr Blair's tour came as a survey for ITV1's Tonight with Trevor McDonald programme suggested 72% of Britons supported the Prime Minister's handling of the Afghan crisis.

The survey also found more than 77% of people believed the attacks on the US on 11 September had changed the world forever. Mori questioned more than 600 adults nationwide.

The poll found that 59% now thought terrorist attacks against the UK were more likely as a result of British participation in the military strikes, and 63% were worried terrorists would use chemical and biological weapons.

Just under half - 45% - of Britons thought recession was more likely following the terror attacks in New York and Washington, 36% were now less willing to travel by air and 46% would be prepared to pay higher taxes to finance military action.

Middle East concern

While in Oman Mr Blair met some of the 20,000 UK troops currently involved in the biggest British military exercise in Oman since the Gulf War.

He also spoke to Sultan Qaboos of Oman on Wednesday and had a private dinner with him during the evening.

A Downing Street spokesman said the two leaders "talked at some length about Islam" and said the Sultan regarded Osama Bin Laden's al Qaida network's so-called doctrine of Islam as "a perversion of the true teachings of the Islamic faith".

On Wednesday, the United States launched further air strikes on the Afghan capital, Kabul, in what eyewitnesses describe as the most intense military bombardment since the campaign started on Sunday.

American warplanes are reported to have begun using 5,000lb "bunker busting" bombs, which appears to mark the start of the next phase in the allies' campaign.