Tony Blair acknowledged the grave dangers in Iraq when he made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday, but the British prime minister vowed that the war against insurgents would be won and elections held on time.

Blair, who has visited Iraq twice before but never Baghdad, flew to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in the city's fortified Green Zone in a British military helicopter flanked by U.S. Black Hawks -- underlining the risks involved in the visit.

Hailing Iraq's election workers as "heroes," Blair arrived months before he is expected to call an election that will test his own popularity after the decision to go to war in Iraq, a move that has grown ever more unpopular with the British public.

As Blair visited Baghdad, an explosion at a U.S. military base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul caused many casualties, the U.S. military said in a statement.

In Baghdad, Blair launched a passionate defense of the invasion as vital for Britain's security and Iraqis' freedom.

"Here are people who are risking their lives every day in order to make sure that the people of Iraq get a chance to decide their own destiny," Blair told a news conference after meeting Election Commission chiefs running Iraq's Jan. 30 poll.

Three people working for the Commission were killed by gunmen in Baghdad two days ago. They were dragged from their car on a busy street, forced to kneel and shot in the head.

Blair, who will also travel to Jordan and Israel, was clearly aware of the threats in Iraq's capital, where there are daily shootings, bombings and mortar attacks, not least on the Green Zone, Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s former palace.

"Security's really heavy," the prime minister responded when asked what his impressions of Baghdad were, and whether he imagined it would be that way 21 months after Britain and the United States led an invasion to overthrow Saddam.

"You can feel the sense of danger people live in ... I feel a sense of humility," he said, turning to Allawi. "It's a very tough challenge you face. You feel the sense of the challenge."

To Justify the war

Blair said he had no doubt Britain was right to have helped oust Saddam and described the fight against Iraq's insurgents as a war between right and wrong.

He said it would be won, even if it took time.

"Whatever people felt about the original conflict, we the British aren't a nation of quitters," he said.

"What's very obvious to me is that the Iraqi people here, they're not going to quit on this task either. They're going to see it through," he said, adding in an aside to Allawi:

"I think the Iraqi people understand that, it's the rest of the world I'm try to get through to."

Both Blair and Allawi were at pains to portray the fight against insurgents in Iraq, most of whom are believed to be loyalists to the former regime or Sunni Muslim militants, as part of the broader war on terrorism launched after Sept. 11.

"We stand on the side of the democrats against the terrorists," the British prime minister said, adding that success in Iraq would ultimately mean a reduction in the threat of attacks at home in Britain.

His words echoed a frequent refrain of President Bush (news - web sites)'s who has said that he would rather see U.S. forces fight terrorism in Iraq than have to do so in the United States.

One of Bush and Blair's justifications for going to war in Iraq was that there were links between Saddam's regime and groups such as al Qaeda, but in the past year it has been shown that no such links existed, even if they have developed since.

Source: Agencies (abridged by PD Online)