Blair Visits Iraq

On a surprise visit to British troops, British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday described Iraq as a "test case" in the global fight against terror and repression. He said nations that develop weapons of mass destruction are a "huge liability for the whole security of the world."

Blair, the main U.S. ally in Iraq, visited the southern city of Basra to thank British soldiers and meet military commanders. He described the U.S.-led campaign to topple the Iraqi dictator as vital to global stability.

"This conflict here was a conflict of enormous importance because Iraq was a test case," he told some of the 10,000 British troops stationed in and around Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. "If we backed away from that, we would never be able to confront this threat in the other countries where it exists."

Blair's representative in Iraq, meanwhile, said that the anti-American insurgency is getting more sophisticated and that he expects even bigger bombs in the future.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock spoke four days after a 500-pound car bomb killed eight people in an upscale restaurant in Baghdad, the capital, and coordinated strikes including four car bombs struck the southern city of Karbala on Dec. 27, killing 19 people and wounding more than 170. The victims included five Bulgarian soldiers, two Thai soldiers, six Iraqi police officers and six Iraqi civilians.

"The opposition is getting more sophisticated, using bigger bombs and more sophisticated controls. We will go on seeing bigger bangs," Greenstock told reporters.

He said he thought 75-80 percent of attacks were being carried out by Saddam loyalists, and the rest by foreign terrorist groups.

In Tikrit on Sunday, an American soldier was shot and wounded during a foot patrol, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division. The soldier was in stable condition, Aberle said.

Associated Press Television News showed footage of a U.S. military vehicle driving away from the scene of the shooting. A soldier lay across the top of the vehicle, as two other soldiers secured his body.

Blair said Saddam Hussein's regime "had a proven record of use of weapons of mass destruction" and that "literally hundreds of thousands of its citizens died in prison camps."

The United States and Britain cited Saddam's alleged programs to develop chemical, nuclear and biological weapons as a main justification for the war, but have come under criticism as no evidence has been found.

"No government that owes its position to the will of the people will spend billions of pounds on chemical and biological and nuclear weapons whilst their people live in poverty," Blair said.

"Brutal and repressive states that don't actually have the support or consent of their people that are developing weapons which can cause destruction on a massive scale are a huge, huge liability to the whole security of the world," he said.

He also referred to "the virus of Islamic extremism that is a perversion of the true faith of Islam."

Blair, whose political fortunes have wavered due to his support for President Bush, flew into Iraq's second-largest city by military aircraft from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, where he was on vacation with his family.

Blair visited a new police academy in the small town of Az Zubayr, where he watched Iraqi officers being trained in self defense, then chatted and shook hands with British police officers and military police from Britain, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Italy.

In gray pants, a blue shirt and a navy jacket, Blair made the 10-minute flight to the academy from Basra in a British Army Air Corps Chinook helicopter guarded by rear and side machine gunners. Basra has been relatively peaceful. Most of Iraq's insurgents operate in Sunni Muslim areas west and north of Baghdad.

Later Blair met with the governor of Basra, Judge Wael Abdullatif, at one of Saddam's former palaces, a marble and mosaic expanse that is a base for Britain's 20th Armored Brigade. Abdullatif thanked the British leader for helping rid Iraq of Saddam's dictatorship.

Blair last visited British troops in Basra in May. His latest trip follows President Bush's surprise Thanksgiving Day visit on Nov. 27 to Baghdad and a visit by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on Dec. 20.

Blair gambled his political fortunes on committing Britain to the war, in the face of widespread public opposition and dissent among many lawmakers in his Labor Party.

Despite the quick fall of Baghdad, Blair's popularity slumped amid accusations his government exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam's illicit arsenal to convince a skeptical public of the need for war.

The issue is likely to be thrown back under the spotlight later this month, with the expected verdict of a judicial inquiry into the suicide of weapons inspector and scientist David Kelly, after he was identified as the source of a British Broadcasting Corp. report that the government "sexed up" an intelligence dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Britain sent about 46,000 British troops to the Gulf region and during the swift campaign to topple Saddam played a key role in securing oil fields and important cities in southern Iraq. The British military has reported 52 deaths.