Civilians' safety a priority: Blair

Tony Blair has said that British and US forces are making strenuous efforts to avoid civilian casualties in the war with Iraq.

In an article for The People, the Prime Minister says coalition airstrikes are designed to target Saddam Hussein's "levers of oppression and power" and not the Iraqi people.

"We must realise that no matter how hard we try to avoid them, there will be civilian casualties. But while the dramatic TV pictures have shown the force of the attacks on Baghdad, they have also highlighted just how much effort has gone into safeguarding civilians and ensuring the targets are Saddam's regime and machinery of control and terror," he said.

He said that if the US and Britain had backed away from confrontation, it would have made the threat from Saddam even more dangerous, enabling him to build up his chemical and biological weapons and re-start his nuclear programme.

"So whatever the short-term outcome, the real result would not be peace as all of us want but more bloodshed and conflict," he said.

"It would not be a stronger United Nations but one with little credibility or authority left."

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