"When our country has been in danger it is your forebears in the Armed Forces who have protected us and sometimes it is necessary, much as we loath to do so, to take up arms to defend our country, to ensure justice and ensure security," Blair told the Sandhurst graduates on day 23 of the war in Iraq.

"But today our armed forces are called upon to take action in many different parts of the world, not so much to defend our country but to defend its long-term security interests," he added.

Blair, standing in for Queen Elizabeth II at the academy's graduation ceremony, harked back to recent British deployments in the Balkans, west Africa, central Asia and now the Gulf.

"I think back over the last few years -- in Kosovo, where British armed forces protected innocent people driven form their homes in ethnic cleansing," the prime minister said.

"In Sierra Leone, where British forces virtually alone managed to protect a democracy against the murderous group of thugs who wanted to destroy it; in Afghanistan, where it was necessary to root out the hiding place of the worst terrorist organisation the world ever seen.

"And now, today, in Iraq, the difficult situation where, having fought to take control of the southern part of Iraq, British forces -- as we speak now -- are trying to bring some peace and normality to the lives of people who have only known repression and brutality."

Today's armed forces, he said, go into action "not just for territory and military superiority, but often for hearts and minds. And it depends not simply on discipline, but also on belief."

SPACE.WIRE