Blair: British troops to stay in Iraq until 2006

• Regime change "had strengthened Britain’s hand" with rogue states.

• In a televised address to troops, he said the war had been a "good and noble cause"

• Blair downgraded the importance of finding WMDs

• In a speech dogged by nervous mistakes, he mistakenly referred to "weapons of mass distraction"

Key quote "In years to come, people here in this country will look back on what you have done and recognise they owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude."

Story in full BRITISH troops will stay in Iraq for at least another two years and will keep the peace in the southern governates long after its elections, Tony Blair has told officials on a fleeting visit to the country.

The Prime Minister, who spent six-hours in Iraq yesterday, made clear that Britain’s military commitment to the Middle Eastern state will last for the entire duration of the reconstruction process.

He also launched a fresh justification for the Iraq war in a speech to a thousand British troops - preparing himself for the imminent publication of the Hutton Inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly.

Mr Blair held talks with Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, at Basra International Airport, which has been commandeered as the headquarters of British forces in Iraq.

He told officials on the ground that the 13,000-strong British force will stay until at least July, when an Iraqi interim administration is due to take over.

A withdrawal will then be phased over two years, until such time as Iraq has its own functioning, sovereign government, with insurgents defeated and a firm grip on law and order.

Speaking to reporters last night, Mr Blair said: "We are about to enter into a very critical six months. We have got to get on top of the security situation properly and we have got to manage the transition. Both of those things are going to be difficult."

The Prime Minister made his second trip to the British-run sector of post-war Iraq after leaving his ten-day holiday in Egypt to travel to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah on Friday. He arrived in Basra yesterday.

Mr Blair told soldiers that regime change had strengthened Britain’s hand with rogue states - and that overthrowing Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship had immeasurably improved life for the people of Iraq.

However, he made no mention of his sole rationale for taking Britain to war - that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He said only that the former Iraq leader had plans for such weapons.

In a televised speech to 1,000 servicemen at Shaibah logistics base, near Basra, the Prime Minister told troops they had undertaken a "good and noble cause" by helping to deliver peace and security to Iraq.

He downgraded the importance of finding weapons of mass destruction, stressing the positive benefits of the invasion by saying many Iraqis were now living without fear of oppression for the first time.

"You know how passionately I believed in this cause and in the wisdom of the conflict as the only way to establish long-time peace and stability," he said.

"But I would like you to know part of the pride that people feel in you is the knowledge that in years to come, people here in this country will look back on what you have done and recognise they owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude."

In a heartfelt speech, Mr Blair praised the British forces as "the pioneers of 21st century soldiering", leading the way in tackling the twin threats of repressive states and terrorism motivated by "the virus of Islamic extremism, that is a perversion of the true faith of Islam but is nonetheless incredibly dangerous".

With the conflict still proving a decisive issue among domestic voters, the Prime Minister was at pains to emphasise the benign consequences of military action.

"There are people here - and I have just met some ordinary Iraqi people - who for decade upon decade knew nothing but the secret police, poverty, utter dependence on the state, fear and inability to make any difference to the county in which they lived, who today have some hope and some prospect of a future thanks to you," he said.

The Prime Minister flew to Basra air base on a military plane amid heavy security. The fleeting visit appeared designed to be as much a morale boosting visit for the troops as a message for domestic consumption of Mr Blair’s resolve ahead of one of the most testing spells of his premiership.

This month will prove critical to the Prime Minister’s long-term future with the publication of Lord Hutton’s inquiry and the vote on university top-up fees both expected within the next few weeks.

Although Mr Blair looked tanned and relaxed as he shook hands with British soldiers, his speech was dogged by nervous errors. At one point he referred to "weapons of mass distraction" rather than "destruction".

Earlier, he held talks with the 20th Brigade in charge of the British zone whose officers presented an optimistic assessment of the security situation, allowing No 10 to assert confidently that the handover to the transitional authority was on track to be completed by the 1 July deadline.

In addition to talks with local Iraqi leaders, Mr Blair also spoke to Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the British representative in Iraq, and Paul Bremer, the American in charge of the transitional authority.

Despite his earlier partial avoidance of the subject, speaking to journalists later on board his plane returning to Britain, Mr Blair said he wanted to send out the message that there was an alternative way of dealing with weapons of mass destruction.

Although he did not mention any country by name, it was thought likely he was referring to Iran and North Korea, whose nuclear ambitions have caused international tension over recent months.

The Prime Minister repeated his belief that the issue of "rogue repressive states developing weapons of mass destruction" remained the major security threat of the 21st century.

And he went on: "It’s important to say to countries that may have engaged in such programmes, ‘Look, there’s a different way of dealing with this.’

"I believe as strongly as I ever have that this is the security threat and if we don’t deal with it, we will rue the day we didn’t."