Kennedy promises to back British forces

The Liberal Democrats will back British troops the moment they are sent into action despite doubts about the war, Charles Kennedy said yesterday.

Mr Kennedy maintained that military action without a second United Nations resolution broke international law but he told his party it had to rally behind British soldiers when the first shot was fired.

The Liberal Democrat leader told the party's spring conference in Torquay that the "innocent civilian population of Iraq" must also be remembered. "They have suffered terribly under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. There is no question about that. But war could so easily make their plight so much worse," he said.

Mr Kennedy questioned Tony Blair's judgement in prosecuting the war. In an unusually personal attack, he accused Mr Blair of betraying the legacy of Hugh Gaitskell, the former Labour leader who opposed the Suez invasion.

"I've never questioned Tony Blair's sincerity but I do question his judgement," Mr Kennedy said, adding that the aim of toppling Saddam Hussein was thoroughly flawed.

"There is nothing in international law to justify it. Yet it is clear that this had been the objective of the Bush administration all along," he said. "The more the United States pursues this doctrine, the more chance there is it will increase rather than diminish the threat of international terrorism. It is easy to see the terrorists exploiting the post-war situation. They will recruit more easily and more freely if governments are destabilised and resentment is swelling against the West."

He told delegates: "I can only hope that if we are now embarked on the final stages of this crisis that the end will come quickly and with the minimum of bloodshed and that our armed forces will come home safely."