GORDON Brown issued a strong defence of British military operations in Afghanistan last night following the death of another British soldier in the country.
The serviceman, from 33 Engineer Regiment, was killed in an explosion near Gereshk, in Helmand province, on Sunday afternoon, becoming the 97th British military casualty this year in the country.
Mr Brown, however, insisted that the troops' presen
ce was having a positive impact in Afghanistan and said Britain needed a foreign policy that was both "patriotic and internationalist".
Britain was best placed to defend its own national interests through international co-operation and "leading in the construction of a new global order" and he said powers could begin being transferred to the Afghan Government as early as next year.
The Prime Minister repeated warnings that al-Qaida poses the biggest threat to UK national security and said that action against the terror network has had greater impact this year than in any 12-month period since the 2001 war to topple the Taliban.
But he warned that the terror group continues to recruit and train and could return to Afghanistan if international forces pulled out.
He has offered to host an international conference in London early next year to discuss the way forward.
The comments marked the latest stage in the Government's drive to shore up public support for the war which has been badly shaken by the rising death toll of servicemen and women.
Speaking at the Lord Mayor of London's Banquet, Mr Brown said Britain could not exist safely in "splendid isolation" and that al-Qaida continues to run "an extensive recruitment network across Africa, the Middle East, western Europe and in the UK" to attract adherents to its brand of international terror.
He said that the group continues to maintain links with both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. "Vigilance in defence of national security will never be sacrificed to expediency," Mr Brown said. "Necessary resolution will never succumb to appeasement. The greater international good will never be subordinated to the mood of the passing moment.
"So I vigorously defend our action in Afghanistan and Pakistan because al-Qaida is today the biggest source of threat to our national security – and to the security of people's lives in Britain.
"And tonight I can report that more has been planned and enacted with greater success in this one year to disable al-Qaida than in any year since the original invasion in 2001."
The Prime Minister continued: "We are in Afghanistan because we judge that if the Taliban regained power, al-Qaida
and other terrorist groups
would once more have an environment in which they could operate.
"We are there because action in Afghanistan is not an alternative to action in Pakistan, but an inseparable support to it."
Mr Brown also rejected calls for Britain to pull out of the Nato-led International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf), bring its troops home and concentrate on protective measures to prevent terror attacks in the UK.
"At every point in our history where we have looked outwards, we have become stronger.
"And now, more than ever, there is no future in what was once called 'splendid isolation'.
"As a nation we have every reason to be optimistic about our prospects: confident in our alliances, faithful to our values and determined as progressive pioneers to shape the world to come."
He added: "I have offered London as a venue in January. I want that conference to chart a comprehensive political framework within which the military strategy can be accomplished.
"It should identify a process for transferring, district by district, to full Afghan control and, if at all possible, set a timetable for transfer starting in 2010."
