LONDON, Aug 12: British Muslim groups said on Saturday Britain’s policies on Iraq and Lebanon were fuelling militancy.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair, leading British Muslim groups and politicians said his foreign policies on issues such as Iraq and the Israel-Hezbollah fighting were putting civilians at increased risk of attack in Britain and elsewhere.

“The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all,” they said in the letter, published in the Times newspaper.

Many Muslims are critical of Mr Blair’s decisions to commit British troops to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and not to call for an immediate halt to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

“We urge the prime minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy,” said the letter, whose signatories included six politicians from, Mr Blair’s Labour Party.—Reuters