The government is facing global terrorist threats that are "without precedent", Geoff Hoon has said.

In a debate on the Queen's Speech, the defence secretary warned that Britain continued to face serious risks to its security.

He said there was a "rapidly changing security environment".

"Threats to our security, and the security of our allies and partners, which have emerged since the end of the Cold War are more disparate and more diverse, but they remain just as real, just as immediate and just as dangerous," Hoon told MPs.

"The sheer scale of the ruthless fanatical violence from international terrorist groups across the world is without precedent."

He condemned the "appalling barbarity" of terrorists and their "deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of innocent people to cause the maximum loss of life and suffering".

Warning

Hoon warned that governments had to "deal with" weapons of mass destruction, saying it would be "simply terrifying" if terrorists acquired them.

On Iraq, the defence secretary looked forward to the January elections.

And he defended recent military operations in Fallujah, which were designed to remove insurgents from the town.

He said the government was "committed to the Iraqi people and we will see that commitment through".

Hoon added that "this is not a time for cut and run", describing the security situation as improving "each week".

Shadow defence secretary Nicholas Soames said Britain had made "an outstanding contribution to the war on terror".

But he said the Ministry of Defence had shown a "dismal ability" to learn from previous operations.

And the department was continuing to suffer from equipment shortages, he said.

Soames also attacked the "disgraceful and rotten decision" to reduce the number of infantry troops.

The move was a political decision drive by the chancellor, he added.