'An al Qaeda battleground'

Iraq has become a "battleground" for al Qaeda and more troops are desperately needed to stop the war on terror going into reverse, a powerful report by MPs warns today.

The Commons foreign affairs committee blames too few soldiers and a "failure" by the coalition to impose law and order from the start of the occupation.

In a major 170-page report, it also warns that Afghanistan could "implode with terrible consequences" unless troops numbers are bolstered urgently.

The warnings are the strongest yet from the Labour-dominated committee. They come a day after a suicide bomber killed 70 people and injured 56 more in the worst atrocity in Iraq since the handover of power a month ago.

The committee paints a vivid picture, of the war on terror being at grave risk of losing ground. More effort is needed, it says, to stabilise the two countries.

"Iraq has become a battleground for al Qaeda with appalling consequences for the Iraqi people," the MPs say. "The failure to bring law and order to parts of Iraq created a vacuum into which criminal elements and militias have stepped."

This happened because an " insufficient number of troops" was deployed after last year's invasion - and because other countries gave a "disappointing" response to pleas by Britain and America for peacekeeping forces.

The committee urges Islamic countries to give military support, particularly in the run-up to elections due next year.

A major blunder, severely criticised in the report, was the decision by US occupation leader Paul Bremer to disband the old Iraqi army and purge members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party, triggering counter-attacks.

The MPs call for more effort to improve living conditions, saying many Iraqis feel unsafe and lack necessities. "The failure to meet Iraqi expectations, whether realistic or not, risks damaging the credibility of the United Kingdom in

Iraq," the report says. It also rebukes government officials for "withholding" critical intelligence from ministers - in particular, details of the 45-minute claim about Iraqi chemical weapons and a Red Cross warning of human rights abuses by British troops.

Conservative committee member Sir John Stanley said Afghanistan was "absolutely on knife-edge". If the country did not get more help with security "everything we have achieved could be put back to square one," he said.

Committee chairman Donald Anderson said Iraq could also "go either way".