LONDON, July 16: British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Saturday branded Islamic extremism an “evil ideology” as it emerged that three of the four London bombers had gone to Pakistan last year.

Speaking at a Labour Party policy conference, Mr Blair said: “The greatest danger is that we fail to face up to the nature of the threat that we’re dealing with.

“What we are confronting here is an evil ideology. It is not a clash of civilisations... It is a global struggle. It is a battle of ideas, of hearts and of minds, both within Islam and outside it.

“This is the battle which must be won... Do not let us underestimate or dismiss it.”

Mr Blair rejected claims that the London bombings — aimed at three underground subway trains and a double-decker bus, with 55 confirmed dead and some 700 injured — were a response to his decision to take Britain into the Iraq war.

“If it is Iraq that motivates them (Islamic extremists), why is the same ideology killing Iraqis by terror in defiance of an elected Iraqi government?” he asked.

Britain is linking the London bombings to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, which carried out the Sept 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 as well as the Madrid commuter train bombings in March 2004.

HOUSE RAIDED: Meanwhile, the police on Saturday raided another house in the Beeston section of Leeds, in the north of England, in their ongoing investigation into the London bombings.

The premises, on Tempest Road, are several streets away from the home of Shehzad Tanweer.

A local resident told Press Association news agency that the house belonged to a Muslim youth worker and father of three who may have known the bombers.

DENIAL: Meanwhile, in Cairo, investigators from Britain were expected to pursue their inquiry into an Egyptian arrested Thursday on suspicion of involvement in the bombings, despite Egyptian assertions that he has “no link” with Al Qaeda.—AFP/Reuters