During an 85-minute news conference -- far longer than his normal monthly briefings - Blair faced questions on the link between Britain's role in Iraq and the two sets of terror attacks in London. Told by one journalist his consistent denial of a link was viewed by the public as an insult to their intelligence, Blair shifted his position, denying his eyes were closed to the relationship between the two.

"I can see how people use these issues to recruit people," he said.

However, he continued, "whatever excuse or justification these people use, I do not believe that we should give one inch to them, not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in our support for two states, Israel and Palestine, not in our alliances."

Questioned over an opinion poll published in the Times of London Tuesday, which found 64 percent of voters believed the Iraq invasion had "increased the risk of terrorist attacks like the ones this month in London," Blair said it was true people saw a link but that they also understood the terrorists should not be allowed any "shred of justification."

He denied Iraq was the true motivation of those perpetrating terrorist acts.

"Let us expose the obscenity of these people saying it is concern for Iraq that drives them to terrorism," he said. "If it is concern for Iraq then why are they driving a car bomb into the middle of a group of children and killing them?"

Blair refuted recent figures from Iraq Body Count indicating U.S.-led forces in Iraq are still killing civilians at twice the rate the insurgents are.

Besides, he said, it was "complete nonsense" to try and equate the two. U.S.-led forces were working toward freedom and democracy and deeply regretted any loss of civilian life, whereas the terrorists were deliberately killing as many innocents as possible.

Those who carried out the July 7 attacks in London, which killed 52 people, would have preferred to have killed 550, he said. He warned against linking Western foreign policy to terrorism, saying "if we're not careful we get to the thought process that it's our behavior that should change."

However, he acknowledged it was important the international community worked to take away "legitimate causes on which these people prey." The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a "legitimate concern," he said, as was poverty in Africa.

But Blair stressed there is "no justification for suicide bombing whether in Palestine, Iraq, in London, in Egypt, in Turkey, anywhere. In the United States of America, there is no justification for it. Period."

And at the same time as removing the ability of extremists to use international issues, the ideology, such as that which pitted Christianity against Islam, had to be challenged at its roots, he said.

"They want a war between Islam and other religions, that's why they keep referring to us as crusaders, Zionists and all this sort of rubbish."

"Leave aside whether it's right or wrong , American foreign policy or British foreign policy. America is not working to suppress Islam," he said.

Likewise the idea that the state of Israel should not exist had to be tackled, he added.

Changing policy in any way as a result of the terror attacks would be a "disastrous signal to send," he said.

Islamic terrorists had demands which "no serious person" would negotiate on, he continued.

"There is another way to make progress in the middle East, to stop terrorism and then get involved in negotiations."

"We all may have our criticisms of the state of Israel and the policies of the government of Israel from time to time," he said; however the "road map" was an opportunity to move forward in the political process.

Terrorism was trying to stop that progress, he said.

Al-Qaida was not a democratic organization and was not interested in establishing democracies but Taliban-style states, he said.

Blair said Sept. 11 had convinced him the world was facing an entirely new form of terrorism.

It "for me was a wake up call. Do you know what I think the problem is? That a lot of the world woke up for a short time and then turned over and went back to sleep again."