'War on terror' sends wrong message, says Benn

Downing Street distanced itself yesterday from an attack by Hilary Benn on the Bush administration's strategy for the "war on terror", in which he claimed military force alone would not defeat al-Qa'ida.

The International Development Secretary called, during a visit to New York, for the strategy to be redirected at winning the trust and support of communities where the terrorists prospered. He said he would not use the phrase "war on terror" - a favourite expression of President George Bush - because it helped to unite fragmented terrorist groups under one banner.

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Mr Benn is a candidate for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party and his remarks were welcomed by Labour MPs opposed to the Iraq war and critical of the Bush administration. But he dismissed a suggestion on BBC Radio that it was an electioneering speech as a "pretty unworthy question".

Mr Benn risked a diplomatic rift by lecturing the White House about the need to develop a more intelligent response to the challenges posed by terrorism. He said relying entirely on "hard power" - military force or economic measures - would not work. What was needed, he said, was "soft power" - listening and finding common ground on values and ideas. Mr Benn said: "In the UK, we do not use the phrase 'war on terror' because we can't win by military means alone and because this isn't us against one organised enemy with a clear identity and a coherent set of objectives. It is the vast majority of the people in the world ... against a small number of loose, shifting and disparate groups who have relatively little in common apart from their identification with others who share their distorted view of the world. By letting them feel part of something bigger, we give them strength." He said later: "Words do count and that is why, since this is not something we can overcome by military means alone, we need to find other ways of describing what the challenge is."

Tony Blair has rarely used the phrase, but his official spokesman backed away from supporting Mr Benn's criticism, saying diplomatically: "We all use our own phraseology."