Blair and Bush admit that war in Iraq could now last for months

Tony Blair and George Bush braced the British and American public for a longer-than-expected war in Iraq amid growing concern that the campaign has stalled.

Speaking on BBC Radio's Today programme this morning, the Prime Minister said, "When you've had a whole series of security services repressing the local people, it was never going to be a situation these people were simply going to give up power and go away."

Mr Blair flew back to London on Friday morning after two days of talks with President George Bush and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan about the war and post-war plans for Iraq.

Mr Blair predicted a UN Security Council resolution mobilizing humanitarian relief for Iraq would be passed within 24 hours.

"We're not saying that the future of Iraq should be governed by the Americans and the British, we're saying the future of Iraq should be governed by the Iraqi people," he said.

At a press conference give after eight hours of talks at Camp David on Thursday, the two leaders did not deny suggestions from US military sources that the war could take months. But they sought to allay fears that the campaign had been blown off course, with coalition troops encountering stiffer resistance than expected and the hoped-for uprising by Iraqis failing to materialise.

Despite minor successes yesterday, including the destruction of 14 Iraqi tanks by British forces, no sign of substantial progress was perceived in the battles for Basra and Baghdad. The US strategy of invading Iraq with relatively small, light mobile forces is coming under increasing criticism from within and outside the US military. Armoured reinforcements may take up to a month to assemble near Baghdad.

Pentagon sources said last night that the frontline US fighting force in the Gulf would be doubled to 200,000 by the end of April. The officials insisted that this was part of the original war plan – not a reaction to the set-backs of recent days.

Asked at a press conference how long war may last, Mr Bush said: "However long it takes to win. However long it takes to achieve our objectives ... The Iraqi people have got to know they will be liberated and Saddam Hussein will be removed no matter how long it takes.''

Mr Blair insisted the campaign had achieved a "massive amount'' but refused to speculate on how long it would last. "We will carry on until the job is done but there is absolutely no point in trying to set a time limit. It is not set by time. It is set by the nature of the job.''

Allied forces had some success yesterday, helped by the lifting of the sandstorms that had hampered their advance for two days. Tanks of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards fought the biggest tank battle involving British forces since the Second World War, destroying 14 Iraqi tanks that attempted to escape from the southern city of Basra. Air raids resumed on Republican Guard positions south of Baghdad as advance American units said they were prepared to start within two to three days the battle for the city of Karbala, 70 miles south-west of the capital.

More than 30 US Marines were injured in a 90-minute battle near the southern city of Nasiriyah – apparently when two units mistook each other for the enemy. Kurdish guerrillas moved a few miles into Iraqi territory after 1,000 American paratroops were dropped into Kurdish-held territory on Wednesday night.

The Iraqi Defence Minister said he expected the Allies to encircle Baghdad within 10 days but he forecast that they would go on to lose a street-to-street battle for the city, which could last for months. Sultan Hashim Ahmed said: "The enemy can go in the desert as far as it wants. In the end, where can he go? He has to enter the city." Asked if he expected street fighting in Baghdad, he said: "Definitely."

At the joint press conference, with President Bush, Mr Blair condemned television pictures showing two dead British soldiers, who, he said, had been executed. "If anyone needed any further evidence of the depravity of Saddam's regime, this atrocity provides it ... To the families of the soldiers, it is an act of cruelty beyond comprehension. Indeed, it is beyond the comprehension of anyone with an ounce of humanity in their soul.''

The two leaders agreed to ask the United Nations to resume immediately its oil-for-food programme in Iraq, setting aside for now their differences over the UN's role in the running of post-war Iraq.

General Norman Schwarzkopf, the Allied commander in the 1991 Gulf War, said coalition forces should "sit and wait'' outside Baghdad for reinforce-ments. He said "the worst thing of all'' would be to go in without overwhelming force.