Blair lashes out at 'evil ideology' of extremism

Speaking at a Labour Party conference, Blair dismissed suggestions -- notably from left-wingers in his governing party -- that the July 7 bombings in London that claimed at least 55 lives grew out of the Iraq conflict.

"The greatest danger is that we fail to face up to the nature of the threat that we're dealing with," he said.

"What we are confronting here is an evil ideology. It is not a clash of civilisations... It is a global struggle. It is a battle of ideas, of hearts and of minds, both within Islam and outside it.

"This is the battle which must be won... Do not let us underestimate or dismiss it."

Blair rejected suggestions that the London bombings were a direct reaction to Iraq, saying: "If it is Iraq that motivates them, why is the same ideology killing Iraqis by terror in defiance of an elected Iraqi government?"

Blair made his remarks as news was coming in from Turkey of an explosion in a minibus at an Aegean Sea resort that killed four people and injured at least two Britons.

Fifty-five people have been confirmed dead after four suicide bombers, three of them Britons of Pakistani heritage, attacked three Underground subway trains and a double-decker bus during morning rush hour.

Blair's government and the police have declared that the attacks bore the hallmarks of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Blair said Saturday that Islamic extremists played on "the tendency to guilt of the developed world", and that it would be a "misunderstanding of a catastrophic order" to think their behaviour can be changed.

Meanwhile, relatives of one of the London suicide bombers said yesterday he may have been "brainwashed" and appealed for new leads in a fast-moving investigation which has so far linked Britain, Egypt and Pakistan.

"We are devastated that our son may have been brainwashed into carrying out such an atrocity, since we know him as a kind and caring member of our family," said the parents of Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30.

"We urge people with the tiniest piece of information to come forward in order to expose these terror networks which target and groom our sons to carry out such evils."