UK probing 30 terror plots

2006-11-10 13:17

London - Prime Minister Tony Blair warned on Friday that Britain faces a generation of struggle after the head of domestic spy agency MI5 said more than 1 600 people were "actively engaged" in terrorism.

Blair added that Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, who also said she was investigating nearly 30 terror plots, was "absolutely right" to say that the threat was long-term.

"I've been saying for several years that this terrorist threat is very real, it's been building up over a long period of time," Blair told reporters after talks with New Zealand counterpart Helen Clark at Downing Street.

"This is a threat that has grown up over a generation.

"I think she (Manningham-Buller) is absolutely right in saying that it will last a generation."

The threat should be tackled through toughened security measures as well as combating the "poisonous propaganda of those people that warp and pervert the minds, particularly of younger people", Blair added.

"It's a very long and deep struggle this, here and right round the world, but we've got to stand up and be counted," he said, echoing the words of foreign secretary Margaret Beckett in a speech urging British Muslims to defend moderation on Thursday.

Blair has repeatedly denied any link between British foreign policy in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East and Islamic extremism.

- AFP