BASRA, Dec 21: Protected by US Black Hawk helicopters, British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew into Iraq on Tuesday in a surprise show of political bravado designed to boost prospects for Iraqi elections and cheer his troops before Christmas.

The prime minister's trip also sent a defiant message back home where Britons' disquiet over Iraq is likely to reduce the margin of his expected general election victory next year.

While a year ago his US ally George Bush stayed at Baghdad airport, Mr Blair went straight into the central Green Zone, a favourite target for guerillas, on a military Puma helicopter.

"We stand on the side of the democrats against the terrorists ... Whatever people felt about the original conflict, we the British aren't a nation of quitters," he said in a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Once housing Saddam Hussein's presidential palace, the heavily fortified Green Zone compound now houses Allawi's offices as well as the US and UK embassies. After his first ever visit to Baghdad, Mr Blair later flew south to the British-run Basra zone to meet troops.

He said those behind the violence were a minority. "What's very obvious to me is that the Iraqi people here are not going to quit on this task either. They're going to see it through," Mr Blair told reporters at the Baghdad news conference in language verging on Bush's folksy style.

Mr Blair and Allawi both said the Jan. 30 poll would go ahead, despite an upsurge in bloodshed that included Sunday's killing of three Iraqi Electoral Commission officials and Monday's twin suicide car bombings that killed 66 people. "Our enemies ... will not prevail," Allawi said. -Reuters