Blair says terror warnings are coming 'almost daily'

Tony Blair prepared the British public last night for the "pain" of terrorist attacks by al-Qa'ida but warned that the world would only defeat terrorism by political as well as security co-operation.

The Prime Minister called for the Bush administration to be fully engaged in the wider problems facing the world as well as focusing on Iraq and terrorism. Despite an imminent election in Israel, Mr Blair renewed his call for an urgent initiative to kickstart the Middle East peace process. In his annual foreign affairs speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in the City of London, Mr Blair gave a gloomy assessment of what he called the warnings of possible terrorist acts coming across his desk almost every day.

It emerged this morning that Britain's ferry ports have been put on their highest state of alert for at least two years, because of fears of terrorists targeting ships.

BBC Radio 4's Today programme claimed that the alert was issued last week after French and Dutch security services warned that terrorists would attempt to board a North Sea ferry in a truck loaded with explosives.

The intelligence is believed to have originated from the FBI, the programme said.

Acknowledging that al- Qa'ida cells were operating in Britain, the Prime Minister said that when this was known, the security services were monitoring, disrupting, imprisoning or expelling the terrorists.

While calling for the public to be vigilant, he highlighted the "dilemma" facing the Government over when to issue specific warnings. Some MPs believe he issued the general warning so the Government could say people had been warned if an attack took place.

Stressing that a "balance" had to be struck, Mr Blair said he would have shut roads, railways, airports, stations, shopping centres, factories and military installations on many occasions if he had acted on every piece of raw intelligence.

"The purpose of terrorism is not just to kill and maim," he said. "It is to scare people, disrupt their normal lives, produce chaos and disorder, distort proper and sensible decision-making. The dilemma is reconciling warning people without alarming them; taking preventive measures without destroying normal life."

The Prime Minister warned: "This is a new type of war, fought in a different way by different means. But as with all wars, it will test not just our ability to fight, but our character, our resilience and our belief in our own way of life."

Mr Blair said the international community needed to be unified in its political response. Coalitions of force were stronger when buttressed by a coalition of common ideas.

He added: "The world needs a broader agenda than simply terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). And we need full US engagement and leadership of all of it. President Bush recognises that."

The danger, he argued, was not just terrorism or WMD, but polarised opinion in how they were dealt with: Europe dividing off from America; the Arab world versus the West; Muslim versus Christian. "We will not defeat terrorism only by security measures," he said.

The Prime Minister accepted a substantial part of the world was "deeply inimical to all we stand for". Although the view was profoundly mistaken, it menaced the unity needed.

So there was a need to "reach out" to the Arab and Muslim world. "We need to understand the passion and anger the state of the Middle East peace process arouses," he said. "The answer is not to apportion blame. The answer is to move the process forward: on security, on political reform, on the only viable solution the whole world now supports – an Israeli state, recognised by all, and a viable Palestinian state. And to do it quickly. Until this happens, this issue hangs like a dark shadow over our world, chilling our relations with each other, poisoning the understanding of our motives, providing the cover under which the fanatics build strength."

In the meantime, ministers are considering plans to warn the general public about specific terrorist dangers. One option is a poster campaign at railway stations on what to do in the event of a gas attack.