The prime minister has been urged by the teenage sister of a British soldier killed in Iraq to withdraw troops from the country.

Maxine Gentle, 14, whose 19-year-old brother Gordon was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in June wrote to Tony Blair criticising him for waging "a war over oil and money".

Gentle and her mother stormed out of a Downing Street meeting with John Prescott and are angry that a handwritten letter from Blair only arrived on Tuesday, seven weeks after Fusilier Gentle's death.

In his letter to the family the prime minister wrote: "I offer you my deepest condolences on his death. But I would like you to know that I believe what Gordon and his fellow soldiers are doing out in Iraq is vital not just for the change necessary in that country but vital for the security and stability of this country, Britain and of the wider world."