Sunday, July 17 2005 11:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Hitting out at the "evil ideology" behind the London bombings that killed 55 people, British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday (July 16, 2005) said it was important to win the "battle of ideas" to defeat "fanatical beliefs" that cause attacks like last week's blasts.

"What we are confronting here is an evil ideology," Blair said at the Labour Party's National Policy Forum in London, shortly after the death toll from the July seven explosions on three subway trains and a double-decker bus rose to 55.

The British Prime Minister said, "This is the battle that must be won. A battle not just about terrorist methods, but their views... It cannot be beaten, in my view, except by confronting it, symptoms and causes, head on."

Rejecting suggestions that the London bombings were a direct reaction to the UK's participation in the US-led Iraq war, he said, "if it is Iraq that motivates them, why is the same ideology killing Iraqis by terror in defiance of an elected Iraqi Government? What was Sept 11, 2001 the reprisal for?"

"Their cause is not founded on an injustice. It is founded on a belief, one whose fanaticism is such that it can't be moderated."