BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington?s closest ally in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein, made a surprise visit to occupied Iraq yesterday to praise the 10 000 British troops serving in the country.

Speaking in the southern city of Basra, Iraq?s second largest, Blair told British soldiers they were the ?new pioneers of soldiering in the 21st century?, fighting against threats of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and brutal regimes.

Blair said world security was threatened by the ?virus of Islamic extremism? and ?brutal and repressive states which are developing weapons that can cause destruction on a massive scale.? Such states were a ?huge liability for the whole security of the world,? he said.

Blair gave weapons of mass destruction as the main justification for joining the US-led invasion of Iraq in March in the face of stiff domestic opposition. No such weapons have yet been found. With Iraq wracked by a relentless insurgency against occupying forces, Blair urged the soldiers to concentrate on winning the peace, saying this was the only way to ensure a stable future for the country.

?Part of the pride people feel in you is the knowledge that in years to come, people in this country...will look back on what you?ve done and...recognise that they owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude,? Blair said.

This was Blair?s second visit to Iraq since Saddam was toppled in April and follows a high-profile and highly secretive trip to Baghdad by US President George W. Bush at the end of November, when he joined US troops to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Former prison

Blair was taken by helicopter to a former prison at of Az Zubayr where British, Danish, Czech and Italian police are running a training academy for Iraqi police.

Basra and the southern region which they patrol have been stable compared to other parts of the country, where the United States has lost more than 200 soldiers to guerrilla attacks since it declared major combat over in May.

Twenty British soldiers have died in combat since the war was launched on March 20, and more than 30 have been killed in non-combat or ?friendly fire? incidents. Some 45 000 British troops were part of the original invasion force ? the largest deployment since the Korean war 50 years ago ? but numbers have been steadily cut back.

Blair is expected to talk to Iraqi representatives to learn what progress has been made in the eight months since Saddam fell and what challenges remain. Southern Iraq is populated mainly by Shi?ite Muslims, who make up around 60 percent of Iraq?s 25 million people but were suppressed under Saddam, a Sunni Muslim.

A spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the US-led body administering Iraq, said Blair had received an upbeat assessment of the military situation.

Peter Graff