Blair wants world to get tougher on terror

Britain's Prime Minister and President of the EU Council Tony Blair and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh poses for photographers, before a meeting at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

"It is time we sent out a clear and unified message from the international community and said that (inciting and supporting terrorism) is no longer legitimate," said Blair in New Delhi at an annual summit of European Union and Indian leaders.

"That is not something that can have any hiding place in respectable opinion and I think that is a necessary thing for us to say."

Officials travelling with Blair confirmed that British diplomats tabled a new resolution Monday at the UN Security Council committing nations to confront incitement as firmly as they do terrorism itself.

The proposal -- ahead of the World Summit on September 14-16 at UN headquarters -- dovetails with Blair's own attempts, in the wake of the London bombings in July, to make it illegal in Britain for Islamists who voice sympathy with those who carry out attacks.

"Out of next week's UN summit, one thing I hope will come is the reiteration of a very, very strong statement from the whole of the international community that we not merely condemn terrorism and condemn those who incite terrorism, but that we expect condemnation and resolutions of the UN to be carried through by everyone," Blair said.

"There is no question in my mind that the international community now, in a way that I don't think was the case a few years ago, speaks as one (on terrorism) not just with determination, but with a certain degree of passion," he added.

Fighting terrorism was one of the key points of a 19-page "action plan" agreed Wednesday that sets out a to-do list for bolstering the full gamut of relations between India and the 25-nation European Union.

Blair led the European side to the day-long EU-India summit as part of Britain's turn at the rotating EU presidency.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed support for Blair's position on terrorism, saying: "It is a struggle for the minds of the people... No cause justifies recourse to terrorism."