Mid East peace is key to beating terror, says Blair

Finding a resolution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is vital to defeating international terrorism, Tony Blair has said.

The prime minister told the Commons on Wednesday that bringing peace to the region was "key" to reducing the global terror threat.

During prime minister's question time Telford MP David Wright asked Blair if he would put pressure on the "newly re-elected" president Bush to make more efforts to secure a peace deal.

Blair said he would "await the outcome of the US presidential election with interest, but we do not yet have a final result".

But he stressed the related importance of "progress in the Middle East along with democracy now in Afghanistan but to come, I hope in Iraq".

"I think those three things together would be the single most significant contributions we could make to the reduction of terrorism and the power of terrorists to recruit to their cause," Blair added.

And he would "do everything I possible can to work with the president of the United States in order to secure that progress in the Middle East".

Later in the session, Birmingham Northfield MP Richard Burden asked the prime minister about Israel's plan to withdraw from Gaza and "freeze" the peace process.

Blair responded: "My clear view, and this is shared by president Bush, is that the disengagement plan is important but it's a first step.

"If properly done it can help us get back to finding a peaceful resolution based on a two state system."

Iraq

The prime minister also rejected out of hand figures published in the Lancet claiming that around 100,000 civilians have been killed since the war began.

"We do not accept the figures that were released by the Lancet last week, we do not accept those figures at all," Blair said.

"We do everything we possibly can to limit civilian casualties but it is the case that when our troops come under fire and Iraqi forces come under fire, they have to return that fire.

"The way of stopping all civilian casualties in Iraq is for these insurgents and terrorists to lay down their weapons, allow elections to go ahead in January and allow Iraq to become a stable democracy."

Afghan elections

Blair also welcomed the news that Hamid Karzai has been officially declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential election.

"It is the first ever election for the Afghan people and a remarkable tribute to them and the power of democracy," the prime minister said.

The election confirmation came after a review of voting procedures concluded the outcome was not in doubt.

President Karzai won 55.4 per cent of the vote, which was held on October 9.