Blair makes surprise visit to Iraq

BAGHDAD - British Prime Minister Tony Blair has made a surprise first visit to Baghdad amidst intense security and hailed officials orchestrating Iraq's January elections as heroes.

In an act of political bravado, Blair flew into the center of Baghdad saying he wanted to send a strong signal of backing for the election despite an upsurge in bloodshed and Sunday's killing of three Iraqi Electoral Commission officials.

As well as seeing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, Blair, whose ratings have sunk over his strong alliance with the United States over Iraq, met top US officials in Baghdad and election commission members.

"I said to them that I thought that they were the heroes of the new Iraq that's being created, because here are people who are risking their lives every day in order to make sure that the people of Iraq get a chance to decide their own destiny," Blair told a joint news conference with Allawi.

Blair said the election would go ahead as planned.

"Whatever people felt about the original conflict, we the British aren't a nation of quitters," Blair said. "What's very obvious to me is that the Iraqi people here, they're not going to quit on this task either. They're going to see it through."

AIDES IN FLACK JACKETS

Blair acknowledged the dangers and challenges of staging Iraq's elections which he said represented an "important blow for democracy everywhere." He said electoral officials lived "in fear of their life every day."

Blair's aides looked nervous in flak jackets while US Black Hawk helicopters shadowed him into central Baghdad.

Twin suicide car bombings on Monday killed 66 people in Iraq's Shi'ite holy cities, attacks that intensified fears of sectarian violence during elections set for Jan. 30.

The Green Zone, once Saddam Hussein's former presidential compound and now home to the British and US embassies, is a target for frequent attacks by insurgents.

When President Bush visited troops for Thanksgiving in November 2003 he stayed at the more heavily defended Baghdad International Airport military base and word of his visit was only released after his plane was back in the air.

A week ago, two suicide car bombers in as many days struck the same entrance to the sprawling Green Zone on the west bank of the Tigris in central Baghdad. Mortars typically strike the zone several times a week.

"Everybody's surprised and happy that Blair's coming," a spokesman for Allawi said. "We think it is very important."

- REUTERS