Islamic fundamentalists should be stopped from acquiring weapons of  mass destruction "at all costs", the prime minister has said.

In his Labour conference address, Tony Blair also defended his decision to go to war in Iraq, and pledged to make the Middle East peace process "a priority" after the next election.

Addressing delegates, he said it was vital to "to confront this terrorism, remove it root and branch and at all costs stop them acquiring the weapons to kill on a massive scale because these terrorists would not hesitate to use them".

Blair defended "the decisions I have taken, the judgements about our future security I have made since September 11".

"There was talk before this conference that I wanted to put aside discussion of Iraq. That was never my intention. I want to deal with it head on," he said.

"The evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons, as opposed to the capability to develop them, has turned out to be wrong. I acknowledge that, I accept it.

"I simply point out, such evidence was agreed by the whole international community, not least because Saddam had used such weapons against his own people and neighbouring countries.

"And the problem is that I can apologise for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologise for removing Saddam.

"The world is a better place with Saddam in prison not in power."

And he rejected suggestions that the government had "made matters worse not better".

But Blair accepted that the issue had "divided the country" and the Labour Party.

Trust

Confronting the issue of trust which has dogged his second term in Downing Street since the invasion of Iraq, Blair asked to be judged on his promises and his record.

"When people talk of trust, I say this: I know manifestos rarely make best sellers," he said.

"But any party activist who wants an answer to the question about trust go and read what we said we would do in 1997 and 2001.

"It's a happy ending because rarely has a political party been able to deliver so much of what it promised."

No apology

But declining to apologise for the war he said instead that "I entirely understand why many disagree".

"I know, too, that as people see me struggling with it, they think he's stopped caring about us; or worse he's just pandering to George Bush and what's more in a cause that's irrelevant to us," Blair said.

However he added that "judgements aren't the same as facts".

"Instinct is not science. I'm like any other human being as fallible and as capable of being wrong," he argued. "I only know what I believe."

Middle East

Blair also issued a fresh commitment to resolving the Middle East dispute and vowed to defend British Muslims.

"Let us demonstrate to Muslims here in Britain that these are values we apply to all our citizens, and change the law to make religious discrimination unlawful as we do with race, gender and disability," he said.

"This party knows the depth of my commitment to the Middle East peace process and shares my frustration at the lack of progress.

"After November I will make its revival a personal priority. Two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in an enduring peace would do more to defeat this terrorism than bullets alone can ever do."

And he claimed that his efforts in in the international arena were not at the expense of the domestic agenda.

"It's not that I care more about foreign affairs than the state of the economy, NHS, schools or crime," the Labour leader said.