Washington: British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday (Dec 10, 2006) said the consequences of a strategic failure in Iraq were immense and that the situation was one of acting in urgency.

Claiming that he does not regret the initial decision to join the United States in the war on Iraq, Blair said the international community would have had a different set of problems were Saddam Hussein and his sons running the show in Baghdad now.

".To be absolutely blunt about it, we have to make sure this works. And I don't think, at the moment, this is a time to start hypothesizing if it doesn't work. It's got to be made to work, because the consequences, as they rightly say, of strategic failure are immense. We are in a situation where we need to act urgently" he said on "The Week" programme of ABC News addressing a range of questions on Iraq.

The British Prime Minister also disagreed with Senator McCain's response to the findings of the Iraq Study Group.

The Arizona Republican seen as the Grand Old Party's possible nominee for the Presidential elections of 2008 argued that the Iraq Study Group Report was a recipe for disaster for the only thing worse than an overstretched armed forces was a defeated Army and Marine Corps.

"There are two ways you can do this. One way is you can do what Senator McCain is suggesting and you can boost the American forces there. The problem is this: If, when you surge the American forces, the Iraqi capability isn't there to come in behind it, then your respite is only temporary," he said.