Brown downplays Iraq terror link

Mr Brown called for a 'cultural' effort to defeat terror

Gordon Brown has said Britain would be under threat from al-Qaeda terrorists "irrespective" of the war in Iraq.

The prime minister told the BBC it was not possible to be "secure" against a global group of "extremist" cells with a "dogmatic and vicious" attitude.

The UK would be threatened "whatever was happening in Afghanistan or Iraq".

He also said the "fight for the future" with extremists had to be fought "not just militarily" but also on a "cultural and ideological" level.

'Carnage'

Mr Brown told BBC Radio 4's Today: "You cannot be secure in a situation where you have a set of terrorist groups, loosely linked as al-Qaeda, that are determined to practise carnage across the world, that have struck in many, many countries, have organisations and cells operating right across Europe and in other countries including, of course, Africa as well as in America."

Al-Qaeda had attacked 25 countries, many of them not involved in Iraq or Afghanistan, over the last 15 years, he said.

Tony Blair went to the House of Commons and said very clearly that he was sorry for what had happened Gordon Brown Prime minister No 10 rebuffs threat

Mr Brown said it was "part of the mission of the next few years" to highlight the difference between "moderate and mainstream opinion" and the "extremist view that wishes to practise violence against all the values that we hold important".

Asked about deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman's backing for a government apology over Iraq, Mr Brown said the government had apologised for the "dossier and flow of information" on intelligence ahead of the Iraq war.

Mr Brown told Today: "Tony Blair went to the House of Commons and said very clearly that he was sorry for what had happened."

'Obligation' to Iraq

He also said that "one of the failures at the beginning [of the war] was that we didn't put the resources and the help into the economic reconstruction that was necessary" and that "we can do a lot better in the future".

He said: "But the strategy for the future of Iraq has got to be that as we move from, if you like, a combat role to an overwatch role, we bring in the resources that are necessary for economic development of the country so that people genuinely have a stake in the future and we work for the political reconciliation of the country."

Asked about the future of British troops in Iraq he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the UK had an "obligation" to the United Nations and Iraq's government not to withdraw.

He said troop numbers there had already fallen from 44,000 to 5,500 and ruled out an "artificial timetable" for withdrawing UK troops from Iraq.