WP : West fighting terrorism properly now, Blair says

West fighting terrorism properly now, Blair says

By Sophie Walker | Reuters | November 19, 2006

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Western allies in Iraq and Afghanistan are now giving more weight to reconstruction and wider political issues alongside military force to fight their war on terrorism "properly," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Sunday.

Blair met Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Lahore to discuss how to beat the Afghan Taliban, pool counter-terrorist intelligence and quell militancy in Pakistani religious schools.

He announced a doubling of British aid, some of it to boost Pakistan's moderate Muslim schools to counter Islamic extremism.

"We begin to win when we start fighting properly, and I think we are now fighting properly," Blair told a news conference. "But we've got to do more."

Asked to clarify Blair's remarks, his spokesman added later: "This is all about learning as we go in the war against terrorism. First, the world recognizes the global threat of this extremist ideology, second it takes security measures to address that and thirdly it has to recognize issues like Palestine."

British government officials have been lining up in recent days to warn about the threat of plots by Muslim militants to launch terror attacks in Britain, while British forces in Afghanistan have faced some of the fiercest fighting from a resurgent Taliban since it was overthrown in 2001.

On Friday, Blair briefly appeared on Friday to accept an Al Jazeera interviewer's contention that the Western intervention in Iraq had been disastrous -- although he went on to point the figure at outside forces fomenting sectarian violence, and his office said he had not meant to endorse the questioner's view.

Both Blair and Musharraf were adamant that progress was being made, both in the fight against terrorism and against the Taliban in particular. But both said military might needed to be backed by political solutions and reconstruction work.

Musharraf has faced longstanding criticism over accusations that the Taliban receive support in his country, as well as shelter on the Pakistani side of the lawless frontier.

"Taliban problem is an Afghan problem. It is in the southeast region of Afghanistan, being supported by elements from this side," Musharraf told the news conference with Blair.

"We need to put our house in order, here on our side, and make sure that this support is cut off, but the main battle is in Afghanistan," he said.

Britain has about 5,000 troops in Afghanistan, part of a 31,000-strong NATO-led force battling the Taliban.

Musharraf said Afghanistan needed reconstruction help on the scale of Marshall Plan for Europe after World War Two.

"A GENERATION TO DEFEAT"

The two leaders also discussed the need for the Middle East peace process to resume.

Blair last week told a group advising U.S. President George W. Bush that progress towards resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would help reduce the bloodshed in Iraq.

He told journalists in Lahore: "Global extremism is based on an ideology that exploits grievance, so what we've got to do is -- at the same time that we are taking on that ideology -- we've got to take away the opportunity to exploit a grievance."

"This took a generation to grow and it will take a generation to defeat," he said.

British government sources say they are concerned about the flow of people and ideas between Britain and Pakistan, where some madrasas, or religious schools, double as training camps for Islamic militants. Nearly three-quarters of a million British Muslims have roots in Pakistan.

The two countries' interior ministries are to set up a joint working group to pool intelligence work and for Britain to provide technical help and training in forensics, crisis management and tracking terrorist funds.