Becketts backs Iraq military support policy

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has cautioned against any "precipitous" move to pull troops out of Iraq.

Mrs Beckett warned that given the threat of further instability and violence, the fate of the country was hanging in the balance.

In a speech given to an audience at the military think tank the Royal United Services Institute, the Foreign Secretary described the situation in Iraq as "dangerous and volatile."

Speaking following the Republicans drubbing in the US Congress and the departure of US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, the architect of US foreign policy, Mrs Beckett said: "We are at a critical juncture which the fate of that country hangs in the balance. There is the very real risk of even greater instability and bloodshed than we have already seen."

She pledged that British troops would stay in Iraq and Afghanistan for as long as they were required.

"I ask those who are calling for more precipitous action to consider the consequences of such action: we would be leaving the Iraqi government without the means to prevent a further escalation in the violence, without the tools to enforce the rule of law and without the authority to prevent their country from turning into a base for terrorism."

She said that a report from the commission headed by former US Secretary of State James Baker on Iraq policy would be more significant than the US election results.

Mrs Beckett called on British Muslims to denounce violence and extremism.

(SP/KMcA)