British Prime Minister Tony Blair should use his forthcoming talks with US President George W. Bush this week to tell the United States to change its plans to use "decisive force" to keep order in Iraq, the British second largest opposition party urged on Wednesday.

The US plans that would allow US commanders in Iraq to do what it takes to stop the current violence undermine efforts to rebuildthe country, Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democratic Party, said in an interview with the BBC.

Flying gunships above residential areas of Iraq would not help win the "battle for hearts and minds," Campbell said, "the use of decisive force may well have the consequence of undermining the long-term political objective."

The aim had to be "to persuade the people of Iraq that they need to have a democratic society and that the present coalition and the occupying forces are doing everything in their power to bring that about," Campbell told the BBC.

Amid continuing violence and kidnappings in Iraq, Blair will meet Bush in Washington on Friday for talks about the situation inthe war-shattered Iraq.

The British government has insisted that it fully agrees with the American strategy in Iraq and said military tactics have to bedecided by commanders on the ground.

But the British newspaper Daily Telegraph on Wednesday quoted aformer official in the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq as reporting that British forces were "soft" on dissent in their areas of control in southern Iraq and were "less serious" about achieving democracy in Iraq than their US counterparts.

"The United States and Britain were working at cross purposes. It did not appear that the Brits were always forthright with theiragenda," Michael Rubin, who resigned from the Pentagon ten days ago, told the paper.

Source: Xinhua