Wednesday, September 28 2005 10:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Brighton: Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday (Sep 27, 2005) ruled out an imminent British withdrawal from Iraq, where "every reactionary element in the Middle East" is trying to wreck scheduled elections in December.

"The way to stop the innocent dying is not to retreat, to withdraw, to hand these people over to the mercy of religious fanatics or relics of Saddam (Hussein), but to stand up for their right to decide their government in the same democratic way the British people do," he said.

He told the ruling Labour Party conference in Brighton, on England's south coast, that global terrorism was "at its fiercest in Iraq," adding: "It has allied itself there with every reactionary element in the Middle East."

In a speech in which he showed no sign of leaving Downing Street soon, Blair implicitly defended his close relationship with US President George W. Bush while saw Britain joining the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

He said that Britain -- which currently holds the rotating EU presidency -- must "at every point, no matter how difficult ... remain strong partners in Europe".

He added: "Britain should also remain the strongest ally of the United States... I never doubted that after September 11 (2001) that our place was alongside America and I don't doubt it now."

"I know there's a bit of us that would like me to do a Hugh Grant in 'Love Actually' and tell America where to get off," he said, referring to a popular Christmas movie in which Grant plays a lovelorn prime minister.