LONDON, Nov 6 (AFP) - Britain said a US-led assault on the city of Fallujah was needed to uproot insurgents who could derail elections in Iraq, dismissing UN warnings such an offensive would actually undermine chances for democracy.
Home Secretary David Blunkett told the BBC on Saturday that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was "entirely wrong" for his reported opposition to the assault on Fallujah, which lies at the heart of the Sunni Muslim insurgency.
In a bid to free up US troops preparing for an offensive on Fallujah, Britain last week redeployed its 850-strong Black Watch regiment from the southern city of Basra to a dangerous US-held sector near Baghdad.
Three British soldiers died Thursday in the sector, fueling anger from both the opposition and members of the ruling Labour Party over Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to agree to the US request for the redeployment.
But Blunkett warned that Iraq could be turned into a safe haven for "terrorists." Blunkett, a member of the governing Labour Party, was backed by opposition Conservative and Liberal Democrat frontbenchers in parliament.
Annan reportedly wrote to leaders in Britain, the United States and Iraq's interim government warning a strike on Fallujah risked disrupting January's elections.
Blunkett said the US-led coalition had to listen to Annan's concerns but added: "I think on this occasion he is entirely wrong.
"If the elections are to take place, if they are to be adjudged to be democratic and if there is to be security and stability and a democratic Iraq in the future, then the terrorists have to be rooted out, both for the Iraqis and for the rest of us," he said.
"If they got their hands on Iraq, they would do what the Taliban did in Afghanistan; they would act as the hosts for the encampments, for the training, for the launch point for those who would kill anybody in our country," he said.
"They don't just disagree with our views and our values, they actually hate everything we stand for," he told the BBC.
11/06/2004 20:00 GMT - AFP